Manchester City midfielder Bernardo Silva said his side are “still in a better position than Liverpool” despite drawing with Crystal Palace on Monday.
Premier League leaders City moved four points ahead of title rivals Liverpool, but missed chances at Selhurst Park saw it end in a goalless draw on Monday.
The result means Liverpool will cut City’s lead to one point if they beat Arsenal away from home on Wednesday.
“We couldn’t score and we should’ve scored,” Silva told Sky Sports.
“Nine games to go, but it’s still better to be in our position than in Liverpool’s and they have to play in our stadium so it’s going to be exciting.”
City and Liverpool will play each other at Etihad Stadium in April.
Silva added: “It’s never easy to play at any team away in the Premier League. It’s always better to win than draw and we wanted to have an advantage of six points over Liverpool.”
‘We’re still top’
Silva failed to convert a fruitful opening late on, poking Jack Grealish’s pass across goal narrowly wide on an off-night for City’s forwards.
But Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola still praised his side’s performance at full-time.
“Luck doesn’t exist in football. We have to score goals and we didn’t do it,” he told BBC Match of the Day.
“We played to score goals and concede few. We struggled a little bit.
“The team that was there today was there before and will be there in the next game. I am very pleased with the performance and the way we played.”
Eight weeks ago, Manchester City’s lead at the top of the Premier League was 13 points – although Liverpool, in third at the time, had two games in hand.
After this draw in south London, the gap is now four points.
“We never had 13 points, [Liverpool] had two games in hand,” Silva added to BBC Radio 5 Live.
“Now it’s four and they have one game in hand. We had very tough fixtures – Tottenham, Manchester United, Everton, Southampton, Crystal Palace. We’re going to keep having difficult games. We’re still top.”
‘You need a bit of luck’
City twice hit the woodwork and Crystal Palace manager Patrick Vieira acknowledged his side’s good fortune.
“It was a team effort and our performance was really good,” he said.
“When you play against the quality of players they have, you need a bit of luck at times – and at times we were lucky – but you also need to perform as well.
“These three teams [Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea] are in the best four or five in Europe.
“You look at how they play, they make the game look easy, they have the quality, the technical ability to make the right decisions. It will be a really exciting end to the season for the title.”
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