2026-03-04 11:53:18

Ruben Dias thinks that Manchester City need to find “different ways” to gain an advantage over Arsenal in the Premier League title race.

City trail the Gunners by five points at the top of the table and the Portuguese defender doesn’t think the team’s recent experience of title wins will count for much in this term’s duel against the north London club.

Speaking to TNT Sports ahead of City’s game against Nottingham Forest on Wednesday (04.03.26), Dias said: “I feel like no title race is the same.

“Every year there’s a new challenge, there’s a new opponent. Even if it’s the same opponent, different ways to go past it. As such, every one is a new one, so we’re focused on Nottingham Forest.”

City are back in the hunt for silverware after enduring their first trophyless campaign for eight years last term and Dias thinks it was a season the team had to learn lessons from.

He said: “Difficult season, for sure. Mostly because we were not excellent and normally excellent is all we do around here.

“But definitely one that we could learn a lot, improve a lot. Also it’s very well known it was a strong period of transition.

“We still managed to get to the final of the FA Cup, we did a brilliant push at the end of the season for those Champions League spots, which was very important for us and the club.”

Dias recently returned to action following a hamstring injury and is ready to play a part in a pivotal phase of City’s season.

The centre-back said: “I feel like it’s been very positive. Every time you have a step back in your season, the train keeps going, you stepped off the train, and then you need to catch the train again.

“I felt like I was able to do it from a very strong position, even the fact that we qualified for the Champions League in the group stage without the play-offs was very good.

“It gave us these two weeks in which I was already good, I had the time and space to train and build up, almost like a pre-season with the team. The timing of it was as good as it could be.”

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