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Rob DawsonCorrespondent
Pep Guardiola is trying his best to ignore Real Madrid while his Manchester City side attempt to take charge of their Premier League title race.
City face Fulham, West Ham and Leeds United before travelling to Madrid for their Champions League semifinal first leg on May 9.
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The title is in their hands following the 4-1 win over Arsenal on Wednesday but Guardiola insists he is not relaxed enough to start worrying about Madrid.
“I have an idea [of a plan against Real Madrid] for the fact that we played last season,” Guardiola told a news conference on Friday.
“Sometimes in the year I see the Spanish league. They changed some things from last season but it’s the same manager. Normally I’m only concerned about the next game. I don’t pay attention to anything but Fulham.”
City are just three games away from winning the Champions League for the first time in their history and could also avenge last season’s dramatic semifinal defeat to Madrid.
In contrast, they have won the Premier League in four of the last five years and six times since 2012.
“When you are 10 or 15 points behind the leader, you can prioritise the Champions League,” Guardiola added.
“We don’t have time to prioritise anything. The Premier League is so attractive, so nice. People say why, it’s not true but the Premier League is the Premier League, it’s 11 months, every week. My attention is Fulham then West Ham then Leeds. After Leeds, not much time but we have time to prepare for Madrid.”
Following their thrashing of Arsenal on Wednesday, City are two points behind the leaders but with two games in hand.
They have taken advantage of Mikel Arteta’s team taking just three points from their last four games but Guardiola insists the same thing could happen to City.
“I know perfectly Mikel and the players know it, they will not give up,” Guardiola said.
” They will not give up. The reality today, we’re two points behind. Be respectful for the teams we play, we have to beat them. The reality is we’re behind.
“Always I say before Arsenal, what happened to them can happen to us. Impossible? No, it can be possible. You can drop points in one week. We have to be aware of that.”