Pellegrini Previews Top of the Table Clash with Leicester

Manchester City Manager Manuel Pellegrini looked ahead to tonight's clash with Leicester City, who can regain top spot in the Premier League with a win against the Blues. Conversely, a win against the Foxes would draw Manchester City to within a point of the lead. As far as festive period fixtures go they don't get much tastier than this.

"Leicester are top of the table because they deserve to be. They have very important players in a very good moment with high performance.

"They beat Chelsea and drew against United - we must consider they will not collapse because they lost.

"We knew it was not easy for them to beat Liverpool away so we were confident that we could reduce the gap at the top if we beat Sunderland.

"Leicester couldn't win and now we have an important game to finish the first round of fixtures."

"Both of them (Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy) are performing very well but I don't think they can do it if the whole team are not having a good performance.

"They are important players but we must think about a lot of different things - not just two players. We must think about Leicester City.

"We hope we can beat them but it will be a tough game."