Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City could slip up before the season ends and still claim the Premier League title.
With Liverpool chasing hard, there appears to be little wriggle room for leaders City, who have nine games remaining in their trophy defence.
Liverpool visit City on April 10 in a fixture that could go a long way to determining the destiny of the title, given its proximity to the end of the campaign.
Former Barcelona boss Guardiola can see a scenario, though, where City do not have everything go their own way between now and the final-day clash with Aston Villa on May 22, yet still end up as champions.
"We can do mistakes and win the title, so nobody knows," manager Guardiola told a news conference ahead of City's game at Burnley.
"Whatever happens in this game or the next one or the next one, it's not going to be champion. We're going to fight until the end, that's for sure."
City could drop down to second place by the time they tackle Burnley on Saturday afternoon. Liverpool, who are a point adrift, have an earlier game against Watford.
But Guardiola says his players would feel no psychological effect should they be knocked from their perch by Jurgen Klopp's team.
"Nothing. Zero. Why [would it]?" Guardiola said. "At the end of the weekend we'll know the position we are. But even going a point in front or a point backward, we have to do our job, nothing changes."
This is the time of the season when both Liverpool and City risk being stretched, despite their player pool resources.
Both are chasing titles in England and Europe, with Guardiola wary his side will be playing midweek and weekend games throughout April if they maintain their Champions League push by seeing off Atletico Madrid in the quarter-finals.
"It's not the first time we've done it," he said. "That means so far we have done incredibly well. Now it is game by game, and the first is Burnley."
City won 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium when they met Burnley in October, and that was also the outcome when these sides went head-to-head at Turf Moor last sesson.
Saturday's game promises to be a clash of cultures, with City having had 685 open play sequences of 10-plus passes in the Premier League this season, at least 187 more than any other side. Burnley have managed just 66 such sequences, making them the only side yet to have reached triple figures for that metric.
This is a fixture that might slip off the Premier League schedule next season, with Burnley second-bottom and in danger of relegation.
Guardiola expressed his admiration for Burnley boss Sean Dyche, but these are worrying times for the Clarets chief, whose team have lost their last three Premier League games by an aggregate score of 8-0, despite being level at half-time in all three. They last lost four consecutive league games without scoring a single goal back in May 2015.
City have won 24 of their last 26 Premier League games against sides starting the day in the relegation zone.
After Burnley away, City head into the first leg with Atletico on Tuesday, before Liverpool head to Manchester. After that game, there will be just seven rounds of Premier League games remaining.
"We have still nine games to play," Guardiola said on Friday. "Game by game, we'll see what happens.
"We know what we have to do, we have to win games, that's all. We're going to try."
St. Louis City v LA Galaxy: Reus sets sights on silverware after dream start
Marco Reus is desperate to bring silverware to the LA Galaxy after making a flying start to his time in MLS, with St. Louis City the destination for his first road game on Sunday.
Reus registered a goal and an assist on debut last week as the Galaxy beat Atlanta United 2-0, maintaining their grip on top spot in the Western Conference.
The Galaxy are five points clear of local rivals Los Angeles FC at the top of the standings ahead of Sunday's trip to St. Louis, who are 13th and 10 points adrift of the playoff picture.
Reus' arrival in Los Angeles has caused plenty of fanfare, but he is focused solely on the team's collective aims.
"It's not about me, it's about the team," he said. "We want to be champions. So we take it game by game.
"Besides the traffic, it's really amazing. The people are so friendly. The weather, it's really nice. When you wake up in the morning and the sun is shining, you start the day differently.
"So I'm really, really happy every morning I come into the dressing room. I'm just happy and excited."
St. Louis played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with the Portland Timbers last week, twice throwing away a two-goal lead to leave interim coach John Hackworth bewildered.
"Really don't know what to say," Hackworth said. "It's hard to imagine coming to a place like this and scoring four goals, being up, and then just losing one-versus-one defensive battles.
"Sometimes, the number of goals you give up, or the number of goals you score, can hide a lot of the transition moments.
"An easy way to prevent some of these defensive miscues from happening is to just be better with the ball."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
St. Louis City – Eduard Lowen
Lowen scored his fourth goal of the MLS season last time out, converting from the penalty spot as St. Louis drew 4-4 with the Timbers.
Only Joao Klauss, with five goals, has outscored him for St. Louis this term.
LA Galaxy – Marco Reus
Reus is one of 20 players in MLS history to record a goal and an assist on his regular-season debut.
He is also the fifth Galaxy player to do so, after Steven Gerrard, Andreas Herzog, Giovani dos Santos and Sasha Victorine. No other team have had more than two players achieve the feat.
MATCH PREDICTION – DRAW
The Galaxy have won 10 of their last 13 regular-season matches, the first time they have done so in a single season since 2011. LA have not recorded 11 wins in a span of 14 matches within a single regular season in the post-shootout era (since 2000).
It would be no surprise to see the points shared in this one, though. All three meetings between St. Louis and the Galaxy have ended level, all with different scorelines (1-1, 2-2, 3-3).
St. Louis have only won one of the last six matches in which they have held the lead in regular-season play dating back to the beginning of June (four draws, one defeat).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
St. Louis City – 35.8%
LA Galaxy – 38.1%
Draw – 26.1%
Raphinha hails Barcelona after statement win over Valladolid
Barcelona forward Raphinha believes the team have laid down a statement of their intent by starting the season with four straight wins in LaLiga.
Raphinha scored the first hat-trick of his career and also delivered two assists on Saturday, as Barca crushed Real Valladolid 7-0 at Camp Nou.
Hansi Flick's side already possess a four-point cushion at the top of the table after also recording victories over Valencia, Athletic Bilbao and Rayo Vallecano.
Raphinha believes their results have demonstrated the club got things right in the transfer market, telling Movistar: "Today's game has shown that there is no need for anyone else to come. We are very happy because of that.
"We are in very good shape. The team is working hard. Today's result shows what we are working for.
"We saw that the coach was on the sidelines asking for more goals and that's our mentality.
"We are hungry and want to score as many goals as we can. When we are dominant like we have been, the best way to respect our rivals is not taking the foot off the gas."
Raphinha was one of the players who faced criticism during Barca's trophyless 2023-24 campaign and was rumoured to be on his way out ahead of the new season.
The Blaugrana again battled financial restrictions throughout the window, allowing Ilkay Gundogan to leave in order to secure the registration of new arrival Dani Olmo.
With his future now certain, Raphinha is keen to nail down a starting spot and contribute on a regular basis.
"I don't know if today's was my best game, but it's certainly among my best. I will try to play even better and as much as I can," the Brazilian said.
"I'm very happy to be able to help the team. I feel good. I knew that this season would be very important for me. I'm looking for my best version to help my team-mates and be more confident."
Lazio 2-2 Milan: Leao salvages draw but Rossoneri still winless
Rafael Leao came off the bench to earn Milan a 2-2 draw with Lazio at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday, but Paulo Fonseca's side are still without a Serie A win this season.
Milan were in front at the break through Strahinja Pavlovic's eighth-minute goal, the Serbian rising highest to power home a header from Christian Pulisic's corner.
However, Lazio hit back in the second half with Valentin Castellanos and Boulaye Dia scoring in quick succession.
Nuno Tavares' first-time ball into the centre was met by the unmarked Castellanos to level in the 62nd minute, then Dia tapped another Tavares cutback home to put the Biancocelesti ahead four minutes later.
Fonseca reacted by sending on four substitutes, and those changes had a swift impact as three of them combined for the leveller.
Theo Hernandez – who joined Leao in being dropped from the start – picked out Tammy Abraham, and his lay-off allowed Leao to escape Tavares to fire past Ivan Provedel.
The game was preceded by an emotional tribute to the man who led Lazio to their last league title, Sven-Goran Eriksson, who died at the age of 76 on Monday.
A Lazio shirt bearing the Swede's name was displayed on the home bench, while a banner held up by the home fans read: "You brought us to the top of the world... Have a good trip Mr. Sven."
Data Debrief: Milan's slow start continues
New Milan boss Fonseca is already under pressure after overseeing a return of two points from his first three league games at the helm.
It is the first time the Rossoneri have drawn two of their opening three matches in a Serie A season since 2011-12, when they also drew two and lost one,
They went on to finish second that season, just four points adrift of champions Juventus. If a title challenge is to take place this term, rapid improvements are needed.
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