The nature of La Liga, Serie A and the Bundesliga – plus many other domestic competitions around Europe – mean when a team hits the front and builds up a sizeable lead, it’s game set and match.
But the competitiveness of English football’s top tier means everyone can beat everyone else – on their day – and this is the angle Garcia believes City should be looking at.
“Twelve points is a good lead for United but there are10 games left and 30 points to play for,” he said. “It is possible, we are City, we need to fight until the final game, and it could happen. We will continue to fight for this Premier League title.
I think that maybe in another league, it is impossible to make up such a gap, but in England all is possible because all the teams are stronger. United can lose a few games, it is possible
...Javi Garcia...
“We still have to go to Old Trafford, but first we have difficult games like Everton and Tottenham away from home. It is important we win at United but if we don’t win, for example against Everton, it will be much harder.
“I don’t know if the Champions League was a distraction for United or not. Maybe it was better for us that United had more games but the situation is the same even though they lost to Madrid. We just need to focus in ourselves.”
Garcia, like the rest of the squad and Roberto Mancini, believes the Blues need to keep grinding out victories such as Monday night’s narrow win over Aston Villa.
“The important thing is the team won,” he said. “It was a hard game, Villa are a good, young team and played very well but we defended superbly and on the counter-attack we were very strong.
“For now, we are only thinking of our FA Cup tie with Barnsley. I know nothing about them if I’m totally honest, but this week the boss and his backroom staff will give us the run-down on how they play. We certainly don’t expect anything less than a tough 90 minutes.”
