Phil Foden says Manchester City players are keeping tabs on how Liverpool and Chelsea are performing as they have opened up a healthy gap over their two title rivals.
City are on a 10-game winning run, while Chelsea have drawn three of their last four Premier League games, winning just four of their last ten outings. Liverpool, meanwhile, have dropped five points in their last two games to slip nine points behind City with a game in hand.
The momentum is firmly with City, and they can extend their lead over at least one of their rivals this weekend if they beat Arsenal as Liverpool travel to Chelsea in a game with huge implications for both sides.
Pep Guardiola insists the title race is far from over, and he could be forgiven for promoting a policy of ignoring what Liverpool and Chelsea are doing so his players can focus purely on themselves.
However, Foden has revealed that the City dressing room are well aware of how their rivals are doing, as he challenged his teammates to take full advantage.
“You can see that other teams are dropping points at the moment and that just shows how challenging the league is," he said after scoring the only goal in the 1-0 win at Brentford.
"There is not one easy game in the league, so we have to remain focused and keep going. It is looking good, but this league is the most challenging one and you cannot take your foot off the gas because any team can beat you. We have to remain focused and keep playing our game.
“It feels really good to get on the scoresheet. The main thing was to get the three points today because other teams are dropping points at the moment. We just want to keep going and get as many points as we can.”
Defender Aymeric Laporte echoed Foden's sentiments, explaining the confidence among the team ahead of the New Year's Day trip to Arsenal.
“First of all, we are very happy with what we are doing," he said.
"I think it is never easy to win 10 games in a row. It is very important for us because it is our objective to be first until the end. We are working on that so we can stay in this position.
“Every game is difficult and we know Arsenal have very good players. We want to keep this position in the Premier League and we will go into this game focused and try to win this game as we do in all of the rest of the games in the Premier League.”
