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Arsenal will be hoping Fulham can take Manchester City down a peg or two when they lock horns at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night
Manchester City have been given a huge boost to their hopes of catching Arsenal in the Premier League title race. Pep Guardiola's side could narrow the Gunners' lead at the top of the table to just three points when they face Fulham at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday night.
City have the opportunity to pile the pressure on Arsenal, who don't play until Thursday evening, when they lock horns with Brentford at the G-Tech Community Stadium. Speaking to reporters ahead of the clash against the Cottagers, Guardiola provided an update on John Stones.
The England international has spent the last two months on the sidelines due to a thigh injury. The City boss said: "John is back. He is fit, I would say.
Stones, who hasn't featured for City since they waltzed away victorious from a nine-goal thriller against Fulham back in December, returned to training earlier this month. His return will give Guardiola's side a great lift as they look to catch Arsenal in the title race.
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The City boss also confirmed that Abdukodir Khusanov will be available to play, despite taking a blow to the head in Saturday night's dramatic win over Liverpool at Anfield. Guardiola said: "He’s good [and able to play]."
Whether Khusanov's English has improved, Pep said: "I admit he doesn’t speak like William Shakespeare, but he’s getting better and better. He understands what we want, what he says and every time he’s getting better and better.
"He is so intelligent. Normally, you have the opinion that he’s so physical, so strong and fast, he’s not able to think, and it’s completely the opposite. He’s always taking good positions.
"He’s so, so fast. To recover that position is one of his attributes. But not just that, don’t confuse about Khusa, he’s intelligent. Normally, when a player has this physicality, he doesn’t use what’s going on, and it’s always his physical condition, and he has both.
"That’s why on the ball he’s getting better. That’s why he’s encouraged to improve. And he can improve. At that age, and he’s open-minded, and I said yeah, recently, City have a player in central defence for many, many years."
On the title race, Guardiola said: "I understand how nice, nine points, three points this kind of stuff [is]. That’s OK, but that does not make winning titles or arriving in the latter stages to win or be close to fight to win the titles.
"Every time in the last month and last weeks when I go before the games in a flash interview, always if you lose you are losing everything and you are going to disappear from Planet Earth and this kind of stuff.
"What I’m saying is what we have to do to beat Fulham, what we have to do to be better and to be closer to make the first half in Anfield and [not] the second. What is the reason why in the second half still we are dropping our performance?
"Not three, four, five, six [points], because if we don’t do that, we will not win, maybe not Fulham, maybe it’ll be against Newcastle or maybe in the next game at Leeds."
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