Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini plays down importance of Arsenal clash

But ahead of the Gunners’ clash with Manchester City on Monday Night Football, the Frenchman would not comment on Mourinho, with whom he has a long-standing feud.

The Arsenal boss knows this is a big opportunity and feels securing victories over their main challengers is more important this season given that teams are dropping points against supposedly lesser opposition. Their last encounter saw Arsenal claim a 2-0 win at the Etihad Stadium, while the corresponding fixture ended in a 2-2 draw last season. “You can beat them but you’re talking about the best, Barcelona are the yardstick”, he explained.

The league leaders have only lost once this season – a 5-2 defeat at the hands of Wenger’s men in September.

“Some of them need to rethink how the way they live Chelsea, they live football, they live their job”, Mourinho said in an interview with Chelsea TV. But I also think we have made a lot of good things – that is why we are the team who are involved in all of the competitions.

Arsenal have been drawn to Barcelona in the Champions League knockout stage. They also trounced Aston Villa two-nil last weekend and will be hoping to continue the run.

Okay, looking at the number of points per game so far, Leicester would finish on 83 points while Arsenal’s total would be 78, so you can see that Wenger’s 80 points is quite a realistic figure.

With his contract at Bayern Munich ending in the summer and an announcement on his intentions expected next week, Guardiola has been linked with a move to the Barclays Premier League. “We played against Barcelona with top teams but inexperienced and they were in full power”, Wenger continued.

But Wenger doesn’t believe the winger is fully fit and wants to give Sanchez more time to recover, yet revealed that there is a slight chance he could make the squad on Monday.

City have been badly hit by injuries in recent weeks but Aguero’s return leaves only Kompany, Fernando, Pablo Zabaleta and Samir Nasri on the sidelines.

“The only concern that I can have in my profession is to try to win the next game and to win the Premier League”.