Guardiola tells champions Man City to focus on points record

Pep Guardiola has indicated pursuing a Premier League record points total may be the best way to keep his Manchester City players focused over the final five matches of the season.

City are at home to Swansea tomorrow, having secured Guardiola's first English league title last weekend, as they won at Tottenham Hotspur and closest challengers Manchester United suffered a shock defeat at home to bottom-of-the-table West Bromwich Albion.

The manager, though, is concerned his squad's performance levels will drop, now that they effectively have only pride left to play for this term.

That is why he feels that chasing Chelsea's Premier League record of 95 points in a season, set in 2004/05, is a useful target for City, who are currently on 87.

"In the past, I have won the league at Barcelona and Bayern Munich with five, six, seven games to go, and the remaining games were not good," Guardiola said Friday.

"We tried to tell the players, 'Come on, keep going', but we were not able to keep going.

"There has to be a target. When the target is already done in terms of the title, what is the reason to fight? Score as many goals, get as many wins and points as we can. That's a good focus."
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