‘A chance to show we’re better’ – Aymeric Laporte weighs in on City’s impending April schedule as Pep Guardiola’s side prepare for two huge clashes with Liverpool next month
Aymeric Laporte believes that Manchester City’s upcoming April fixtures provide the side with the opportunity to show that they’re ‘better’ than each team they come up against.
Pep Guardiola’s side will compete in eight games across the month, including two clashes against Liverpool and a two-legged Champions League quarter-final tie with Atletico Madrid.
But the Spanish international claims the Cityzens ‘can’t be afraid of anyone’ and reminded fans of the title race of 2018/19 which saw the Sky Blues pip Jurgen Klopp’s side to the title by one point.
“I’d call this an opportunity. A chance to show we’re better than all those other teams,” Laporte told The Guardian.
“City can’t be afraid of anyone,” he continues.
“Something like this happened a few years ago: [Liverpool] were a point behind in the same week, and in the end we won the league. We have this fight now and that’s good for the fans, and neutrals.”
The former Athletico Bilbao man also discussed whether people are desperate for City to fail due to the success they’ve tasted in recent seasons.
The 27-year-old believes his side possess the ‘best defence’ in the league, even though Liverpool have kept the same amount of clean sheets in the English top-flight this term and have conceded just two more goals and scored seven more.
“Maybe it’s not that they’re tired of us but they don’t think it’s normal we always win,” he added.
“If I’m not mistaken, we’ve won 11 trophies in four years [in fact 10 across the past four seasons, including two Community Shields]; that can annoy people, like our neighbours who haven’t won anything.
“They [Manchester United] have a lot of supporters, we’re in the same city. It’s hard [for them] to understand. But there’s only one winner. They’ve spent a lot of money too.
“We’re humans, people have to understand that: just as we beat United, we lost to Palace.
“You can’t explain that with money. However much a player costs, that doesn’t mean he’s going to be the best. It’s not an exact science.
“We’re leaders, a point ahead of Liverpool. We have the best defence – and [yet] people throw defensive issues at us.”
The defender is clearly in a confident mood about the title race and City’s chances of doing the treble.
We, however, are confident that we can make history and complete a rather magnificent quadruple.
We’re one point behind league leaders City at the moment but have the chance to leapfrog them when we welcome Watford to Anfield on Saturday lunchtime.
April is a huge month for both sides and the results each team achieve throughout the month will go a long way to determining the success that they taste this term.
The next few weeks are certainly going to be exciting – let’s hope they’re a successful few weeks for us.
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