City have already seen off the Slaven Bilic’s side twice this season – a 3-1 Premier League victory in August and a 5-0 FA Cup triumph at the London Stadium in January – but the Spaniard knows that will not mean much come kick-off on Wednesday night.
He said: “This is a totally different game and in football, you can never live in the past.
“This game will difficult and completely different and we can’t think about winning there a few weeks ago – we have to have the same approach to this game as we will have for all our remaining games. That is that it will be difficult and we’ll need to play really well to leave with a victory.
“There are areas we know we need to be better but in this league, anyone can beat anyone, so you have to keep fighting until the last game has been played and see where it takes you.”
City sit in fifth place in the Premier League, 13 points off leaders Chelsea, but Nolito hasn’t ruled out City’s title chances.
“We can’t kid ourselves – it is a big gap to have – but anything can happen and we need to make sure we don’t slip up from now until the end of the season and that will be the key to where we finish at the end of the season and whether we can claw back those points,” he said.
Having spent most of his career to date in La Liga, the 30-year-old is enjoying the competitiveness of the Premier League but he insists it isn’t a surprise to him.
“I think that’s happening more in Spain now as well – certainly more than it did two years ago - some of the results have been a lot closer and there have been a lot of 1-0 matches so I don’t think it’s only the Premier League – I think all the leagues in Europe are getting much more difficult.”
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