We’ve been given another lifeline so we must grab this opportunity
ALBRIGHTON RALLYING CRY AS BLADES VISIT CITY CITY NEWS
LEICESTER City should be dead and buried in the Champions League race, Marc Albrighton has admitted.
City have won just three of their last 14 Premier League matches and winger Albrighton believes their run of form in 2020 should have seen them slide out of top four contention.
But while their advantage, which stood at 14 points, has been eradicated, they remain in the Champions League places with three games remaining.
It looked like City would drop to fifth for the first time since September after their 4-1 embarrassment at Bournemouth – but Manchester United could only draw 2-2 with Southampton.
“We have been given another lifeline,” Albrighton told Sky Sports.
“We could have been dead and buried by now. With some of the results that we have had, we probably should have been.
“We need to look at this as another opportunity. It is an opportunity for us to put things right.
“It would be disappointing to not have anything to show for what a great season we have had.
“The fact that we are still in the mix tells me something is going to happen. I am a big believer in fate. We are still in it. It is in our hands. I believe that we will get there.”
He added, on the Bournemouth defeat: “The Premier League is unforgiving. You cannot afford to make mistakes. Whether you are playing a top team or a team down the bottom, you will get punished straight away.
“Just the way that we capitulated, none of the players or staff accept that.
“It is totally against what we are about and we are certain that it will not happen again.
“There are ways to lose football matches and that was not one of them.”
However, Albrighton rejected any suggestions that the City dressing room was in a bad place.
“Football is very fickle,” he said. “One day you are on top of the world, the next you are feeling as low as a snake’s belly.
“You have to manage your emotions. We have to have a calmness of the mind when things go well and when they go bad. Do not get too high or too low.
“Whenever things go wrong, it is the first thing that people want to know (about the dressing-room atmosphere).
“Is it a bad dressing room? Is there unrest? It is nothing like that. It is an indifferent run of form but there is no major issue. It is such a together group. We have a squad in which everyone gets on.
“There are no egos. Everyone works for each other. The fans know that.
“It is difficult to put your finger on what has changed.
“We have been doing the same things but we have not been consistent enough and it just has not gone for us.
“It shows how well we did in the early part of the season to still be in the mix. We are still on track.”
Albrighton was withdrawn with a hip problem at the Vitality Stadium and is a doubt to face the Blades tonight.
He joins a host of City stars on the sidelines, with Ricardo Pereira a long-term absentee and James Maddison and Ben Chilwell missing the past few games.
“These players are top players so we have missed them greatly,” Albrighton added. But I think we have strength in depth here. We are raring to go for Thursday.”