Fernandinho believes that Manchester City can still catch Liverpool at the top of the Premier League.
The Brazilian highlighted the club’s next two fixtures against Arsenal and Leicester as vital to their chances of instigating a fightback in their bid to close the current seventeen-point gap between the two sides.
"They are crucial, really crucial,” Fernandinho told Sky Sports. “The target is six points in those two games.”
"That's why I have to concentrate, the way you have to play, the decisions you have to make on the pitch should be more clinical in front of the goal and how are we going to defend ourselves.
"This is going to make the difference and I think, I hope, we can prepare well, be 100 percent concentrated and to get three points from those two games. I still believe we can chase Liverpool.”
"It depends on how we react in our games, everything can change it depends on some results and how we react to that. That's why I say I am a believer and will always be a believer because in football many things can happen."
Fernandinho’s comments come in the wake of Pep Guardiola’s claim that he doesn’t believe his players can compete with Europe’s best any longer.
"United have the quality to defend and the quality to attack on the counter-attack and you have to accept that but that is the level we face against Liverpool, United, Barcelona, Madrid, Juventus," said the City boss.
"I could come here and complain about many things, I have reasons to complain, my guys or the guys who are quite often here don’t happen, and maybe we need to live that as a club to improve, to accept the reality now and improve."
However, Fernandinho’s believes that Guardiola’s comments can act as a catalyst for the team to prove him wrong in the months to come.
"After a defeat it's always hard to say something because your mind is still there on the game,” Fernandinho added.
"If you think our team is not able to compete with the best teams in Europe, we have another challenge to go to work and improve to be able to play against the top teams."
