Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri has claimed that Premier League leaders Chelsea are "not special" and that his side were the better team in both of their meetings this season.
Chelsea maintained their seven-point gap over reigning champions City at the top of the table courtesy of a late win over Everton in midweek, and are heavy favourites to go on and win the title for the first time since 2010.
However, Nasri believes that there will be plenty more twists and turns to come in the final 13 matches of the season and pointed out that City have overturned similar deficits in their previous two title-winning campaigns.
"I'm a big fan of [Jose] Mourinho, but I am not impressed with his team, not at all. We have played them twice, one time with 10 men, and we were better than them. Then we played them at the Bridge, we were better than them. When I have seen some of their games, I don't think they are that fantastic - they are just strong and have a good striker up front," Nasri is quoted as saying by PA.
"For me they are not special at all, and I think they are going to make some mistakes. We just have to perform, to win our games, and see what's going to happen. This title will be like this until the end of the season. No-one will win the league 10 games before the end of the season. We know that the two times we won the league, we were behind at this time of the year.
"Two months ago we were eight points behind Chelsea and came back and went level with them. Now we are seven points behind, but are not going to make big talk about it. We will just try to get as many points as possible and wait for the mistake. They won in the last minute against Everton, so maybe next time they will draw. We just have to win our games and see what will happen. The season is still long, they have the Champions League and the final of the Capital One Cup as well, so have a lot of games to play."
Nasri was amongst the scorers on Wednesday night as City ended a four-match winless streak in the league by beating Stoke City 4-1 at the Britannia Stadium.
Barney Corkhill
