Pep Guardiola finds it highly improbable that his rival Jürgen Klopp would have thrown in the towel insofar as catching Manchester City in the title race is concerned because the Liverpool manager is known to be a fierce competitor.
Despite City being ahead of the Merseyside club by nine points and having played a game more, Guardiola said his team could require no less than 96 points to retain the title. On the other hand, Liverpool could acquire the same 96 points only by winning all their remaining matches.
Interestingly and possibly as a foil, Klopp played down his side’s chance of catching City after the Reds beat Leicester on Thursday. Aapparently Guardiola had been informed that the German had said it was impossible to overtake the leaders and the Spaniard was asked for his views on Klopp’s takeout.
“Just I don’t believe him,” Guardiola said. “Absolutely [it’s possible] and he thinks the same, otherwise he wouldn’t be the competitor that he is. Of course he believes. In football, everything can happen. He knows that he has to win a lot of games, like we know we have to win a lot of games to fight to be champion again.
“Both teams have shown over the years that they can make an incredible run of victories in a row. Both have the same managers, more or less the same squads and ideas. Both could make 16, 17 wins in a row. They can do it – we can do it, too.
“The opponents are [always] so tough. We have to win the next game, next game. That is why the Premier League is the nicest title, because you have to fight against an incredible amount of problems. It’s who is more consistent and these two teams are incredibly consistent. The run we’ve done over the last 14 games [winning 13, drawing one] and we are just potentially six points ahead – it’s because the opponent is so good too. In normal circumstances an opponent would be 10 or 12 points [behind] with the amount of games we’ve won.”