As Pep Guardiola’s team gets ready to play West Ham United, Kevin De Bruyne insists Manchester City understands the repercussions of the possibility of losing games at the end of the season.
At the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night, City welcomes the Hammers. They’ll be aiming to win so they can reclaim first place in the Premier League standings.
With a 3-1 victory over Chelsea at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night, title rivals Arsenal reclaimed first place in the standings. City currently trails Arsenal by two points, although Mikel Arteta’s team has two games in hand.
De Bruyne and his teammates know that if they win three of those games—one of which is against West Ham—they will regain the lead in the Premier League. The Belgian thinks his colleagues are aware of the impact a loss would have on their chances of retaining the title given how tight the standings are and how Arsenal responded to City taking the lead over the weekend with a victory.
I believe we enjoy playing these games, he said to the internal media. We probably also comprehend the results. We’ve lost games, and that’s just a part of football.
In addition, we have frequently prevailed in similar contests. Given how challenging these games are, we are also confident that we can prevail in them. I believe that’s all we need to understand—it’s positive pressure.
There are times during every season when things get a little harder and your team is not performing well. We were in a fairly good place even a few months ago, in my opinion.
“Obviously, the standards that have been set in the previous five or six years, there have been seasons with 90-plus points all of the time, and it is a pretty high bar and you get judged based on that.
“I believe we returned in a strong groove, and the past several months have been excellent. Most of our games we’ve won.
“You just want to carry out your duties, but we have games every three days. We are aware of the circumstances, but I do not believe they will alter the group, which is beneficial.