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said to the players that we need to win seven, eight, nine, 10 games to be champions or have to drop so many games not to be champions.

“My focus is Liverpool. What they do, what we are and what we have to do to beat them.

“I always try to tell the players not to read too much on what is done and focus on the next one. My desire is to convince the players to follow me and not the opinions of other people – because, in football, anything can happen.

“Of course, we can lose the title – because you never know what is going to happen in the next 16 games. We have to maintain our level, consistency and the way we have played.

“OK, we will have a chance, but if we start to go down and down and the confidence goes down and we don’t play well, I would shake my opponents’ hands and congratulate them on being champions.”

Guardiola has pinpointed Liverpool and Tottenham as the two Premier League teams he enjoys to watch most.

Guardiola said: “I think Liverpool are playing like they used to do in the past.

“And Tottenham play well – you see the statistics of their games and they always have 20, 25, 27 shots at goal.

“I like to watch these types of teams.”