Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has warned his players that anyone believing the Premier League title is already won will be axed.
City are 12 points clear at the top with 12 games remaining but ahead of Wolves‘ visit to the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, Guardiola has warned he will be on the look-out for players he thinks are taking their foot off the pedal.
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“When I feel that everyone is thinking the job is done, or how good it is, this guy is not going to play,” Guardiola told a news conference on Monday.
“I’m so intuitive to know exactly the guys who are not ready to continue what we have to do.”
City are on a 20-game winning run and have not lost since November but Guardiola insisted his players need to get better if they are to remain on course for an unprecedented quadruple of winning the Premier League title, Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup.
“Always we can do better, that is the target,” Guardiola added. “Especially in the areas of the performance of the individuals we can improve. Every player can improve. When every individual player can improve, the team will improve.”
City were able to extend their lead at the top of the table over the weekend after the rest of the top five teams — Manchester United, Leicester City, West Ham United and Chelsea — all dropped points.
West Ham manager David Moyes described Guardiola’s team as “the best in Europe” after his side lost to City on Saturday.
However, Guardiola is still concerned they could collapse.
“The champion is Liverpool, we are not,” he said. “To do it we still have to win eight, nine or 10 games and it’s a lot of games. There are incredible teams who struggle for four or five games to win games. It can happen to us too.
“Last season it happened. At the beginning of the season it happened. We were unable to win three games in a row in the first two months. That’s why.”