The Frenchman, who played a key role in the thrilling final hurdle of City’s title-winning campaign, revealed the players often reminisce and take heart from the similarities it shares with the Blues’ current situation.
“We talk about the title-winning season a lot,” he asserted. “Especially after the win on Monday. Now we are back on track and Chelsea have dropped points against Sunderland, it’s an obsession.
“For me, it’s good to be behind Liverpool, waiting for them to make a mistake. That’s what happened two years ago and we need to believe because when we won the league, we won it in the last second of the last game. Anything can happen.
We don’t know how Liverpool will deal with the pressure. They are a pretty young team and it’s been 24 years since they last won a trophy.
“They have a difficult game against Chelsea and then another tough game against Crystal Palace so you never know.”
Back in December, the Eagles produced an impressive defensive performance which frustrated the Blues and almost cost them a vital win. In the end, City managed to scrape a 1-0 victory but Nasri expects a similar challenge on Sunday.
“It will be really difficult,” he stated. “I know they will not play the game - they will just adapt to ours.
“Right now, they are full of confidence and they can play freely as they are safe from relegation. Tony Pulis has done an amazing job.
“I don’t know if we will play all-out attack because they will be all defence. Last time, it was really hard for us to score a goal. That’s the way they play. Every team plays with their strengths and that’s theirs – to defend well and catch us on the break.
“We have to be cautious but we want to put pressure on Liverpool until the end of the season so we have to win our games. Hopefully, they will slip up in one of theirs but we have to win ours no matter what.”
With the current table-toppers in action against fellow title contenders Chelsea in the earlier kick-off, City could go into their clash at Selhurst Park with the Reds’ result in mind but Nasri has warned against doing so, as it could prove detrimental to the Blues’ pre-match preparations.
“It would be a mistake to find out the result from that game first,” he declared. “We have to focus on our game and only afterwards, we will see their result. That would be the best thing to do. If Chelsea got a result and we knew, maybe we would put too much pressure on ourselves.
“We just have to win our games and then we will see at the end of the season.”
