Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini looks ahead to Saturday's home game against Leicester and says that the Foxes will be in the title fight till the end of the campaign. He also discussed the announcement of Pep Guardiola's arrival next season (5th February).

SOUNDBITE (English) Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City manager:

(on Leicester City and how much of a surprise it's been to see them challenging for the Premier League title so deep into the season)

"Well, I think Leicester start (finished) last season very well. If you see their last... I don't know, eight, nine games of the last season, they won seven and draw two (Leicester actually won 7, drew 1 and lost 1). They started (this season) with players playing with high trust and who know what they can do and they continued this season. At the beginning, maybe it was a surprise, I don't think now it's a surprise. They have players of a very high performance (level), they have a team that works together, they have a very good and experienced manager (Claudio Ranieri), so I think they will be involved in the title race until the end. Now we have the opportunity to play against them here at home. I hope we can win that game at least to close the gap and continue fighting with Leicester and other teams, who will be the champions this year."

SOUNDBITE (English) Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City manager:

(on whether it has come as a relief that the news of current Bayern Munich coach Pep Guardiola becoming Manchester City coach next season has been revealed)

"No, not as a relief. I think it was important for everyone to know that I knew what was happening and not that everyone was talking behind me, so that for me is important, but it's the last thing that I will talk about that, because we are in this season, we have a lot of things to fight for, so it's very important, as I've said, after that, to be focused now on what we must do this season, not thinking about the next one."