Roberto Mancini has called on his Manchester City side to focus on winning against Arsenal at the Emirates on Sunday and forget about the pressures of the title-race.
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The Citizens are seven points adrift of Premier League leaders Manchester United, a gap that could stretch to 10 when City kickoff against the Gunners on the weekend.
The Red Devils are in action against Liverpool in the early kickoff on Sunday, with City only in action after the final-whistle in Manchester.
However, the Italian wants his players to keep their focus on their own match, rather than the north-west derby at Old Trafford.
"We should go our way. We can't think about United or other teams," he said.
"Also it is difficult because we are missing important players but we want to do a good job on Sunday.
"I don't think we deserve to be seven points behind but now we can do nothing, only start to win.
"We have a difficult game now, because we play against Arsenal, but the season is long and is very difficult.
"We have another 17 games. I think we can recover these points."
The 48-year-old will be missing some key players for the trip to north London with Yaya and Kolo Toure is in South Africa for the Africa Cup of Nations, while Sergio Aguero is injured and Samir Nasri suspended - meaning Edin Dzeko is set to continue in the starting line-up.
Dzeko is the team's top scorer along with Aguero. despite being used as an impact substitute for the majority of the season, Mancini dismissing that the Bosnian is unsettled because of his lack of starts
"It is important Edin plays like against Norwich and against Stoke," he added,
"If he play likes like he did against these two teams he could be important.
"I don't think there is one player that is happy to stay on the bench but we can play only with 11 players and someone should go on the bench sometimes.
"If Edin continues to score, I don't think we can have a problem."
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