Manchester City forward Erling Haaland says he is not feeling the pressure ahead of a potential title decider with Arsenal on Sunday because his side have “nothing to lose” after playing catch-up for most of the season.
City come into the crunch game, live on Sky Sports, knowing seven wins from as many games will almost certainly return the Premier League trophy to the Etihad after a year’s sabbatical in Liverpool.
But the normally free-scoring forward – who himself has been under the microscope after netting once in his previous five league matches – played down the expectation that City will keep up their remarkable consistency in the final weeks of the season across recent years to overturn the Gunners’ six-point lead.
“Right now, I’m quite calm,” he told Sky Sports from the club’s Etihad Campus training ground. “It’s one game a week, which is really unusual for us.
“It barely happens. Honestly, I don’t feel a lot of nerves or anything, because we’ve been chasing all season and we’ve got nothing to lose, so I don’t have any pressure.
“You’d have to ask [Arsenal] if they feel the pressure. I cannot talk about them. I can talk about myself, mostly. With myself, I don’t feel loads of pressure, because we’re still far behind.”
Sunday 19th April 4:00pm
Kick off 4:30pm
If Haaland is to break his four-game league duck he will have to get the better of Arsenal defensive duo Gabriel and William Saliba, something he failed to do in City’s 1-1 draw at the Emirates earlier this season.
Haaland does have five goals in 10 appearances against the Gunners during his time at the Etihad – but will have to work hard to find space against arguably the best central-defensive partnership in the Premier League.
He said: “It’s always a fight. They normally have loads of players around me, which is a good thing for me. That means it’s a good thing.
“It’s not easy to play against many players around me, but it’s always a nice fight. It’s always good, as I said, to play against the best, because that’s something you want to do.”
City shook off the pressure of knowing the title is all but in their own hands last weekend after a nervous first half at Chelsea, re-emerging after the interval to net three goals in 17 minutes and run out comfortable 3-0 winners at Stamford Bridge.
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Pep Guardiola has admitted that if Manchester City lose to Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday, their chances of winning the title are ‘over’
That followed Arsenal’s surprise home defeat to Bournemouth 24 hours earlier, which Haaland said had turned every one of the club’s final eight games into a cup final.
“It’s like a final, like last weekend was against Chelsea, it was a final as well,” he said.
“Let’s be honest and say that, and we have a final every single weekend now for the next six weeks.
“It’s a massive game, it’s probably the biggest and the best game there will be, so hopefully it can be an amazing game. We all know that, we all know the importance of this game.”
At the end of that Chelsea game, Haaland pushed young defender Abdukodir Khusanov to the front of the City celebrations to receive his own applause from the away support in west London.
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Erling Haaland thinks Bernardo Silva is the ‘smartest player’ he has ever played with after the Portugal midfielder announced he is leaving Manchester City at the end of the season
The 22-year-old has enjoyed a mightily impressive season after initially taking some time to find his feet at the club, and looks likely to start an eighth league game out of the last 12 against the Gunners this weekend.
Haaland himself is only three years Khusanov’s senior but said his actions at Stamford Bridge had come from a growing leadership role within the City squad, given his relative experience in the game.
“I think of the moment with Khusanov, because Khusanov has been amazing for us,” he said. “It’s not been easy for him, moving to a new country, not speaking the language, it’s hard and everything.
“With the pressure and being the first ever from Uzbekistan to play in the Premier League and everything.
“I speak like I’m 35, I’m not, I’m 25. I have a lot of experience, I’ve been playing lots of football, so I know how it is in lots of different situations. It’s about helping others, because I know how they’ve been and things can be a bit hard sometimes. It’s about trying to make them comfortable.”
Watch Man City vs Arsenal on Sunday from 4pm on Sky Sports Premier League, kick-off 4.30pm