Phil Foden insists Manchester City stars are “not stupid” over Premier League title race with Liverpool and Arsenal | OneFootball

Manchester City’s stars are “not stupid” when it comes to their chances of winning the Premier League for a fifth consecutive season this campaign, according to Phil Foden.

The reigning champions of the English top-flight, having won the league crown in all of the last four seasons, have fallen significantly behind the leading pack at the halfway stage of the campaign.

A torrid run of form across November and December saw Manchester City win just one game across all competitions, leaving them adrift in the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, and out of the Carabao Cup.

However, now unbeaten since prior to the turn of the year and recording convincing victories against West Ham United in the Premier League and Salford City in the FA Cup, some are wondering what Manchester City’s goals and ambitions may be for the rest of the season.

Speaking after Manchester City’s 2-2 draw away to Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium on Tuesday night, Phil Foden was quizzed on the club’s chances of winning the Premier League this season despite the sizeable gap to leaders Liverpool.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s done for sure, it’s done. We know. We’re not stupid,” Foden told reporters in west London.

“So we’ve got to aim for top four, that’s the next target now and then obviously Champions League as well. So it’s not as if the season has gone.”

The Manchester City midfielder continued, “But we’ve got to be realistic, haven’t we? The performances have not been good enough to get up there. The top four is our aim now and then see where we can be in the other trophies.”

Manchester City face a challenging run of games in the remaining weeks of January across both the Premier League and UEFA Champions League, knowing that many of which are simply must-win encounters at this early stage of the season.

Up next is a trip to newly-promoted Ipswich Town at Portman Road where Manchester City come up against their former Academy starlet in Liam Delap, who is going from strength to strength since joining Kieran McKenna’s side from the Etihad Stadium last summer.

That outing is followed by a venture into Europe for the final time in the league phase as Paris Saint-Germain host City on matchday seven, while Chelsea travel to the Etihad Stadium in the Premier League the following weekend.

Matters conclude for the month in the UEFA Champions League with Club Brugge the visitors on the final matchday of the league phase, as City head into the final two matches in 22nd position and at risk of missing out on the last-16 entirely.