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Manchester City are firmly back in the Premier League title race but Pep Guardiola is refusing to be drawn on the battle ahead.
Pep Guardiola believes Gianluigi Donnarumma and Erling Haaland are two "important pieces" for Manchester City after they helped to drag the Blues back into the Premier League title race.
City beat Brentford 1-0 at the Gtech Community Stadium, with Haaland scoring the only goal of the game and Donnarumma making a big save after the break to preserve the lead.
It means Guardiola's side have made up six points on Liverpool this week and now sit just three behind new pacesetters Arsenal in what is shaping up to be an intruiging title race.
And in goalkeeper Donnarumma and striker Haaland, Guardiola knows he has two key men at either end of the pitch.
"I have an incredible striker and keeper," he said. "But it’s clear we missed chances in the first half. The way we played we have to be better to finish the game and be comfortable. It’s similar to Monaco.
"To have Erling there and Gigio back, they are two important pieces."
Guardiola believes City are starting to get better and they have now extended their unbeaten run to seven games in all competitions, but he insists it is too early to be making title race predictions, pointing to Liverpool's fast start and recent stutter as evidence of that.
"It’s just seven games for the Premier League," he said. "I would say three weeks ago Liverpool apparently won the Premier League and now they have not.
"It’s important to see the team better and better. Liverpool is an incredible team, like Arsenal, the question is to improve and improve, the way we play, the way we defend, will help us to be close to fight."
It also looks likely it will require a smaller points total than usual to win the league, with the top sides taking points off each other and the Premier League's middle classes starting to bloody the noses of the big boys on a more regular basis, although Guardiola isn't yet ruling out one team going on a winning run to change the dynamics.
"I don’t know. The previous seasons is higher, better, but I don’t know. One team can make an incredible run of points," he said.
"Your job (the media) is so brave because you say what is going to happen. I’m not able to do that. After seven games, make an analysis, it’s too early, there is momentum, injuries. In Monaco I had the feeling we did many things good, today we defended better as a team. The way we are playing, not for 90 minutes, but we are better."
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