Micah Richards doesn’t believe that are ‘complacent’ and backs them to win the for a record fourth consecutive season.
His comments come a week after aimed a savage dig at the former City defender as well as his fellow pundits Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher.
After Neville had blamed the Citizens’ poor form on ‘complacency’, , saying: ‘Neville didn’t do it [win four titles in a row]. Maybe they accuse us of complacency because they felt complacency. Maybe they felt it. This team so far, no chance.
‘Jamie Carragher didn’t win one [title]. Micah Richards didn’t win four Premier Leagues in a row. Never, ever. It’s never happened.’
Richards for his part stands by his criticism of City during the four-game win-less run, which was ended on Sunday with a , though agrees complacency wasn’t the issue.
‘The team showed their character, but that didn’t surprise me at all. Whenever people talk negatively about them, it just spurs them on,’ the former full-back told MOTD2 after the victory at Kenilworth Road.
‘I wouldn’t say Pep has been touchy recently, but it is like he is taking that criticism and going, “well, if that’s what you think, we will show you”, and the whole team has got that attitude too.
‘They might not win the title, although I believe they will, but they will fight to the end. If someone else does beat them to it, then it is going to be very close.
‘I don’t think “complacent” was the right word Gary was looking for. I wanted to be sure, so I actually looked it up in the dictionary to be certain about its exact definition.
‘It means being so self-satisfied and uncritical of yourselves because of success that you don’t even try your hardest, and that’s definitely not Pep, or the City side I see.
‘I could be wrong, but I don’t think that’s what Gary meant. I think he just meant that, by their high standards, City are letting teams back into games, where normally they would be ruthless and finish them off.
‘If you look at those games they drew, against Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham, they had opportunities to wrap all three of them up – if, say, Erling Haaland takes his chance when City are 2-1 up against Spurs, we would not be having this conversation.
‘That is not down to a lack of hunger, though, or the team taking their foot off the gas. It never is.’
Following the weekend’s action, City are fourth in the table, just four points behind leaders Liverpool and are next in action on Wednesday evening in dead rubber Champions League trip to Red Star Belgrade.
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