Kevin De Bruyne has revealed Pep Guardiola’s message to Manchester City’s players for their Premier League title race ahead of their final game against West Ham.
A victory against Tottenham in their penultimate match saw Man City take a two-point lead over Arsenal heading into the final game of the season on Sunday.
It’s a situation Man City are familiar with and they are aiming for a fourth consecutive title – and Guardiola had a simple message for his players.
“Lose points and we’re not going to win, that’s all,” De Bruyne exclusively revealed to Sky Sports News.
“We know, we’ve been in this situation before. Now with Arsenal both teams have to think the same thing.
“I don’t even call it an altercation, we haven’t lost since Villa (early December), Arsenal lost maybe a game in the last 16.
Sunday May 19 at 3:00 p.m.
Kick-off at 4:00 p.m.
“Those are impressive numbers from us, so we know that if we don’t win against West Ham, Arsenal will probably win the league and vice versa. That’s the only way to look at it.”
Victory on Sunday – where Man City hosts West Ham, live Aerial sports – would mark a sixth Premier League title for De Bruyne in almost nine years.
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Man City’s Kevin De Bruyne downplayed his celebrations after victory at Tottenham on Tuesday
“I’m excited, it’s a privilege to be in this situation,” he added. “It shows the hard work this team is doing to get into this situation.
“I know everyone always says ‘we have to win the championship’, but doing it constantly is difficult. It’s not like other teams are giving it away, we have to fight for it, work really hard and be here at this point, that means again it’s really competitive.
“It’s a nice moment, a bit stressful too, but we’ll take it.
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“I have the impression that the hunger is there. After winning a lot, at the start of the season when you don’t have a lot of rest, it’s harder to find that rhythm again, but somehow another, we find the hunger once again to go there.
“The team is humble enough to work hard to achieve the success that we have and I don’t know how to put it other than to work for it and try to do it again.”
In Tuesday’s win over Tottenham, De Bruyne assisted Erling Haaland’s opening goal, with the two establishing a powerful partnership since the latter’s arrival last summer.
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Erling Haaland capitalized on Kevin De Bruyne’s assist to give Man City the lead
Speaking about the goal against Spurs, De Bruyne said: “Before I received the pass, I tried to look behind me and understand the situation. Once I got the ball, there was only ‘only one place to put it really. I tried to give the best possible ball and Erling is there to do the rest.
“At this level, it’s easy to play with everyone. Everyone has their own qualities. As an outstanding striker in the box, he’s the best I’ve played with.
“He knows how to gain a little yard of space and that’s probably the hardest thing to do in a box full of four defenders, but he seems to find a way to be there.”
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Highlights from Tottenham’s match against Manchester City in the Premier League.
And Haaland isn’t the only player to receive praise from De Bruyne. Phil Foden, who recently won the FWA Men’s Footballer of the Year award, was also described as “incredible” by his teammate.
“He was probably the best player in the league, or one of them,” added De Bruyne. “I was out for five or six months so I couldn’t help the team, but he took over at that point.
“He’s been really good, but he’s been good in previous years as well. In terms of numbers, he’s up there.
“Two years ago when we lost the (Champions League) final to Chelsea, he played all those games too, but sometimes it goes up and down a little bit with the players playing, but he moved to another level and helped us win a lot of games.”
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