Ex-Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips is backing his former club to secure Champions League qualification.
Speaking exclusively to Man City News (courtesy of BetVictor), Wright-Phillips said that, once Pep Guardiola’s side get through a run of tough fixtures, they should be able to recover their position with an easier set of games during the run-in:
“City will get in the top four. I think they’re in their hardest run now to the back end of the season in terms of who they’ve got to play – the Liverpool’s, the Newcastle’s, they’ve done the Arsenal’s.”
“I think they’ve got Villa one more time at home and then after that – I wouldn’t say it’s games that people say we should win because there is no easy games in the Premier League – but you expect them to pick up the points whereas we know Arsenal have got to go and play Liverpool, we know Newcastle have got the same thing. There are elements to it where you can sit here and say, yeah, City will finish in the top 4 but you still have to put the performance on the pitch.”
The Arsenal defeat would have hit confidence levels
Wright-Phillips is correct that, if City do manage to negotiate this hard run of fixtures, they could be able to secure plenty of points in the last couple of months of the campaign.
However, after losing 5-1 to Arsenal last weekend, a lot may depend on how the squad reacts. They will be looking for a good response against Leyton Orient in the FA Cup on Saturday before their clash versus Real Madrid next week.
What does City’s run-in look like?
After the game against Tottenham at the end of the month, the Premier League champions only play one game against a traditional “big six” team before May, and that is the Manchester derby at Old Trafford on April 5th.
Considering the Red Devils’ woeful home form, the Cityzens would be confident of getting a result even in that fixture.
Read more from our exclusive interview with Shaun Wright-Phillips. He talks about Arsenal making a move for Bryan Mbeumo and the performances of Chelsea’s Pedro Neto
