Crystal Palace manager Oliver Glasner refuses to write off his side’s chances of defying expectations despite a difficult encounter.
Palace host Manchester City on Saturday while their final matches see them face six of the top eight teams.
They have picked up five points from Glasner’s first five games but are without a win since beating Burnley 3-0 in his first game in charge.
But Glasner prefers to take a positive view of his team’s matches.
“We have eight games, I want 24 points,” he said. “Of course we aim for winning matches. If we don’t want to win tomorrow, it’s better that I stay with my family and enjoy the good weather in London. It should be 21 degrees tomorrow – sightseeing, hop-on hop-off (tourist bus), is great. If you say it doesn’t matter when you lose tomorrow, I will.
“We are competitors, we want to win the game and if I don’t have that passion to win every game, I will retire. I don’t like to say it’s Man City (so we can’t win), we have respect and they are playing excellent.”
City boss Pep Guardiola has never tasted defeat as guest manager at Selhurst Park, with Crystal Palace’s last victory against the Manchester side coming in 2015, when Manuel Pellegrini was at the helm.
“I was impressed with their performance against Aston Villa and I’m really impressed with Pep Guardiola with what he’s done over the last seven or eight years at Man City and before because I’ve seen him work at Munich ” Glasner said.
“That doesn’t mean we’re going to come in tomorrow with the white flag and say ‘congratulations on 3-0’. I’ll never do that so I can’t do that. We’re going there tomorrow to win the game.
“We know it’s going to be hard work for us – a lot of running, a lot of focus, a lot of concentration, but we will believe in our situations and our moments. That’s what I want to feel. Then we tell them maybe- being at the end, congratulations, maybe they deserve it, but never before the match.
After hosting City, Palace includes matches against Liverpool, Manchester United and Newcastle before a trip to Aston Villa on the final day of the season.