Julian Alvarez says Manchester City must play every league match from now until the end of the season like “a final” after displacing Arsenal at the top of the table.

The Argentinian international scored a fantastic long-range goal to seal a 2-1 win over Fulham at the weekend and, asked for his thoughts about City’s title challenge, Alvarez replied:

“This is where we wanted to be at the start of the season,” he said, speaking to City’s official website. “Everyone’s put in really good work and now we’ve reached the top we need to defend it. Every game is a final for us and everyone’s going to pull together to make that final effort.”

“It was a very important win for us. Especially after the win against Arsenal, we’ll be able to catch up. We need to keep this going. It was really nice to score here, a really important goal at an important point of the match. Really nice to contribute. We knew it would never be easy coming here because of the pitch, because of how good Fulham are as a team. We were very happy to withstand the pressure and hold out.”

It should be pointed out that Arsenal will go back top of the Premier League if they beat Chelsea on Tuesday evening, with City not playing again until they face West Ham a day later.

Even so, Alvarez’s hunger for his first league title is clear, and it will be hoped that his teammates (who have all won multiple trophies in their careers) share the same desire to finish in first place.

After playing the Hammers on Wednesday, Pep Guardiola’s side take on Leeds United at the Etihad this weekend before the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid.