If City can defeat the Gunners at the Emirates Stadium in the 19:30 kick-off, we’d hit the summit on goal difference.
Barry – a Premier League and FA Cup winner with the sky blues - thinks this would be a huge psychological moment for us because, if we also manage to defeat the Gunners at the Etihad Stadium in April, destiny will be in our own hands.
He said: “I think mentally all you want to is for it to be in your hands.
“I know there’s still a lot of football left. But you do start panicking when you think right ‘we can only do what we can do’. You don’t want to start relying on Arsenal or whoever is at the top of the league to make mistakes.
“At the minute, City – if they win the game – on goal difference they’re ahead so mentally that’s quite a big thing to be taking right into the end of the season.
“They’ll be confident they have the experience and the players and certainly the manager to manage all these games and get over the line.”
Barry was on hand as a guest pundit on Matchday Live for the City v Villa game, alongside Stiliyan Petrov and Darius Vassell.
The Premier League record appearance maker was impressed with the victory and wants to see two halves of football like we saw in the first 45 minutes against the claret and blues as we take on the Gunners in this mouth-watering clash.
We went in 3-0 at the break, courtesy of goals from Rodrigo, Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez, only for Ollie Watkins to pull one back in the second period.
ARSENAL V CITY | TRAINING GALLERY
He added: “The players would possibly have been thinking about Arsenal when they were 3-0 up at half-time. It’s natural. They’re human beings.
“But they’ll look to go back to that first half performance and take it into Wednesday.
“Arsenal are on top of their game and City know they have to play two halves the way they played the first half because the quality when they go to the Emirates is going to be the next level up.”
