Pablo Zabaleta is well aware just how important it is for Manchester City to put pressure on those sides above them by regularly picking up points.

City have produced just four points from their past five Premier League outings and ahead of Sunday's local derby with sixth-placed Manchester United, the Argentine says it is crucial that they avoid defeat so they can remain in a strong position to finish in the top four.

Zabaleta also highlighted the fact that City are 12 points behind league leaders Leicester City which makes the avoidance of dropping points all the more important.

"Leicester keep winning their games, and then you look at the rest of the teams and everything is really tight from third place down to sixth or seventh," he said.

"We need to be honest with ourselves and think that the gap between the leaders Leicester and us is big. We have a game in hand but it wouldn't be right to just think about the title.

"It's just about focusing on winning the next game and this is probably the best way to see how far we can go in the league. We can't make any mistakes, and we have been dropping a lot of points."