Speaking before Manchester City travel to Stamford Bridge on Thursday night, Pep Guardiola has said his side needs to be ‘almost perfect’ if they want to have a chance of catching Arsenal.

Manchester City travel to Chelsea on Thursday night for the final match of this game week.

Although Arsenal dropped two points against Newcastle in a game they should have had a penalty, they still extended their lead over City to eight points (and over Chelsea to 19).

At his press conference before the game, Guardiola was full of praise for Arsenal and, while I love to see it, even I think he over-egged it a little.

“They (Arsenal) are going to do 100 or more points the way they have gone so far,” Guardiola said.

“If they continue this way, we will not catch them.

 “We have to be almost perfect I would say, from here to the end of the season – and hope they drop a little bit in their performance, because yesterday [against Newcastle] they were excellent.

“We will see what happens.”

Attentions, however, will turn to the FA Cup this weekend as the Premier League takes a short break.

Arsenal travel to Oxford United on Monday night while City play Chelsea again on Sunday, this time at the Etihad.