Pitso not counting his chickens just yet

He wants his Sundowns side to build on their lead at the top of the PSL before they talk about winning the league title CITY FACE A STERN TOTTENHAM TEST

PITSO Mosimane wants a double-digit lead at the top before he can comfortably say the Absa Premiership title is Mamelodi Sundowns’ to lose.

And the coach might just get his wish considering how this current 2017-18 season is turning out with rivals incredibly off colour and simply not at the races.

“You can’t start talking when you only have a five point gap,” Mosimane, said after Sundowns beat Maritzburg United 1-0 at Loftus on Wednesday night to widen the

pictured,

gap at the summit.

“I know we have those two games in hand, but that is dangerous.

“Look at SuperSport United.

“What is happening now with their games in hand?

“That thing is not an advantage because you have to win LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur are next up in the so-far losing battle by the rest of the English Premier League teams to derail the runaway train that is Manchester City.

The two square off at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow as Premier League teams hit the midway point of a busy December schedule that has them playing eight times through the new year.

No one this season has yet been able to get the better of City, who’ve rewritten the record books in opening an 11-point lead.

Pep Guardiola’s unbeaten side thrashed Swansea 4-0 on Wednesday to become the first side to win 15 consecutive Premier League matches.

“In history there were amazing teams like Liverpool in the 1980s and United with Sir Alex Ferguson or Chelsea with Jose Mourinho – some amazing teams,” Guardiola, whose team has taken 49 of a possible 51 points, told reporters after the match.

“But we are the first ones in the history of English football to win 15 in a row.

“It means we are strong in the head.”

City could face a stern test in fourth-place Tottenham, who have three wins and a draw against them in the past two seasons.

“We’re going to Manchester thinking we can win,” manager Mauricio Pochettino said after beating Brighton 2-0 on Wednesday.

“It’s a fantastic challenge to play against Manchester City. They’re the best team in England and one of the best in Europe.”

Second-placed Manchester United look to keep pace with City at struggling West Bromwich Albion while third-place Chelsea host Southampton.

West Brom are winless in 15 games but could be boosted by a goalless draw at Liverpool which lifted them out of the relegation places.

“In a league where the teams are so congested, every point is gold-dust and this is a really important psychological point for us,” new manager Alan Pardew said.

“We needed to gain belief by being very disciplined and I couldn’t fault the players on that side, they really gave everything for me.”

Tottenham currently hold the final Champions League qualifying place on goal difference over Liverpool and Burnley with Arsenal a point back.

That could change with the trailing trio all playing teams in the bottom half of the table – Burnley visiting Brighton, Liverpool at Bournemouth and Arsenal hosting Newcastle.

Disappointing away draw at Southampton and West Ham this week have pushed Arsenal’s winless run to three and dropped them down to seventh.

“It’s a bit frustrating,” manager Arsene Wenger said after the West Ham game finished goalless on Wednesday.

“We had to keep confidence in our game and we go through a patch where there’s a difference between what we create and what we score, but that will not last.”

Leicester look to make it five straight wins when they host third-bottom Crystal Palace, West Ham visit Stoke in a matchup of relegationthreatened teams, Watford face Huddersfield and bottom side Swansea travel to Everton in the weekend’s other games. – dpa those games.” Even Fadlu Davids, the M a r i t z b u r g coach, said immediately after the encounter that Sundowns were champions in waiting. “He’s just being nice,” said Mosimane. “Fadlu is being a nice guy and he means well, but we careful.

“It is too early and we have to manage all these compliments.

“When you have a 14 or 15-point lead, then you can start saying it will be silly for us to lose the title.

“But when you are not there yet, it is way too early. We have not even played half the league matches. It will be very difficult to get the six points from the two games left before Christmas.”

But what think about his title rivals and a campaign that has been characterised by inconsistency?

“I think the second half of the season will actually be worse,” the Sundown coach opined. “The season so far has been deceiving. When you go two rounds of matches and there are no goals, there’s obviously a topic and it’s justified at that time.

“I like what Cavin Johnson (AmaZulu coach) said. He says most of us coaches play not to lose and we are conservative. It’s true, who wants to lose? But if you don’t attack, how are you going to win? If your game is 70 percent defence and 30 percent attack, are you going to score from that 30 percent? We need to play.”

Mosimane then argued this approach would affect Bafana Bafana in the long run.

“I understand we are all afraid to lose our jobs. So am I. But we play withdrawal football and it’s easy to do so, but for big teams this is scary because we still have to try and build from the back because our people want entertainment.

“This is dangerous for the national team because we are not building attackers,” the coach explained.

“We will all be scraping for points in the second half of the season. It will be one draw after another, hence you find yourself in second place if you just win two games. We don’t want to play. But we are Sundowns and we have to try, you can’t give it to the centreback and ask him to hoof it forward.”

Sundowns host Bloemfontein Celtic tomorrow afternoon at Loftus and it’s another opportunity for the Brazilians to show they are a cut above the rest.

“But we might not have the legs,” Mosimane said. “You saw Vila (Sibusiso Vilakazi) and Thapelo (Morena) cramping. And (Hlompho) Kekana was also struggling at the end because he played four games in 12 days.

“But we should have resources in terms of personnel, but it will be difficult for smaller teams with games back-toback. I don’t like rotation because I prefer putting out my best team, but we may have to do that a little bit.”

@superjourno