• City are one point clear of their rivals ahead of their game against Watford today

Pep Guardiola is relishing the tension as Manchester City seek to hold off Liverpool in a gripping Premier League title race. City are one point clear of their rivals ahead of their home game against struggling Watford today.
Victory would take them a step closer to retaining the title, with five games left for both teams after this weekend, but Liverpool will stay hot on City’s heels if they win tomorrow’s Merseyside derby against lowly Everton.
Guardiola said he was relishing every moment of the nerve-jangling sprint to the Premier League finish line. “Of course we enjoy it,” he said yesterday. “We’d prefer to be in this position than not, having the chance to try to make back-to-back titles. I love it. Fighting for knockout stages, every game is important and decisive. It means we’ve done good things before, otherwise we wouldn’t be here.”
City, who last week lost to Liverpool in the FA Cup semi-finals, could yet meet Jurgen Klopp’s team in the Champions League final. City face Real Madrid in the semi-final first leg on Tuesday and Liverpool take on Villarreal 24 hours later. “Being there to play in the Champions League semi-finals and the league, arriving at the end fighting is a joy, a pleasure. Now we try to do it,” Guardiola said.
Given Liverpool’s blistering form, including a 4-0 rout of Manchester United on Tuesday, Guardiola is well aware that City have no margin for error. A single slip could hand the title to Liverpool, who have slashed the 14-point lead City held over them in January.
“We cannot drop points, but they (Liverpool) can’t either,” Guardiola said. “The players know it. We’ve been in this position before. We played a final versus Brighton (a 3-0 win on Wednesday) to be able to play another one and tomorrow is another one. If we win then it’s another. It’s step by step, try to recover the players, be fresh in the head and mind and when we finish tomorrow another in the Champions League, then Leeds. It’s not think too much, refresh, relax, and have positive energy as a unit.”

Klopp ‘never expected’ Liverpool’s quadruple bid
Meanwhile, Klopp admits he never expected Liverpool to get so close to winning an unprecedented quadruple as they prepare for Merseyside derby against Everton. Klopp’s side are bidding to become the first English club to lift all four major trophies in a single season.
Klopp has repeatedly played down Liverpool’s hopes of a clean sweep and he is shocked that they have reached the final weeks of the season still in with a chance of making history. “It is a situation we didn’t expect to be in and we’ve never been in this situation,” Klopp said yesterday. “It’s incredibly tough, we play pretty much all the time.
“I didn’t expect us to win the League Cup, be in an FA Cup final, semi-final of the Champions League and one point behind the leader of the table. We love the situation we are in.
“You cannot plan it that you are still in and around everything. What we know, there’s nothing really achieved so far yet, or it’s not a lot.”
Liverpool’s surge in the second half of the season has taken even Klopp by surprise. “We had an absolutely OK first part of the season, but it was not that people were over the moon when you are 14 points behind the leader,” he said. What the boys made of that was pretty special so far, but that’s it. We knew we will be better. But that we will be in this position, I had no idea about.”

Fixtures:
Today (1400 GMT unless stated): Arsenal v Manchester United (1130 GMT), Leicester v Aston Villa, Manchester City v Watford, Norwich v Newcastle, Brentford v Tottenham (1630)
Tomorrow (1300 GMT unless stated): Brighton v Southampton, Burnley v Wolves, Chelsea v West Ham, Liverpool v Everton (1530)
Monday: Crystal Palace v Leeds (1900)