Pep Guardiola says winning the Carabao Cup is more important to him than time to rest over the Christmas period.
City are currently one point behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, with many now predicting a two-horse race for the title.
And with Liverpool out of the Carabao Cup, they have a less stressful Christmas calendar, with City travelling to Leicester this week in the quarter-final of a competition we won last season.
Asked if that will aid the Merseysiders in their bid to win the Premier League, Guardiola said: “Well we will see but I’d prefer to be in Carabao Cup. It is what it is.
“I cannot imagine to go to a game and think it would be better to lose because we would have more time to rest. I have never thought in that way.
“We have a game so we will prepare as always to win the game, reach the semi-final and have a chance to reach the final. That is the only way a club like Manchester City, who were not always in this position, can grow up and get better.
“If we arrive in February, March, April exhausted, unlucky, what are we going to do?”
