Wenger: Defeat won't end City's hopes

Arsene Wenger says the title race will not be over should Arsenal beat Manchester City on Sunday - but wants his men to focus 100 per cent on delivering the right performance.

Leaders Manchester United could open up an eight-point gap with a home victory over struggling QPR a couple of hours before City kick off at Emirates Stadium.

Blues boss Roberto Mancini feels should his side then lose to the Gunners, it would be almost impossible to overhaul such a deficit in the remaining six games.

Wenger, though, does not believe things can be put so simply.

He said: "It will not be over, but it will make things very, very difficult.

"City will [fight until the last], certainly, but I believe we should wait and see what happens over the weekend.

"Unfortunately we are not involved in the title race and we will let them sort it out between themselves, but at the moment Manchester United have the advantage."

Wenger insists there can be no thoughts of ending City's title dreams when his men look to recover from the 2-1 defeat at QPR last weekend, which halted a run of seven straight league wins which saw them climb back up into third place.

"Our job is always to cope with the consequences of the game, but before you just focus on what you want to do well," he said. "The momentum is still there because in the last eight games we have won seven, so it was an interruption and a disappointment.

"We want to come back to what was our recent level, that means playing well and therefore winning the game."

Mancini has endured his own set of personnel issues this season - and the City boss joked if he was in the same dressing room as Mario Balotelli he may well have punched the mercurial forward, who continues to make as many headlines off the pitch as on it.

Wenger is no stranger to dealing with testing personalities during his 16 seasons with the Gunners, and believes sometimes from the outside it is all too easy to make a quick judgment.

"You don't always have to believe what you read because people like the excesses of people," Wenger said.

"You need to work with players on a daily basis to know how difficult they are to manage.

"I feel usually players are happy on a football pitch and it's not as difficult as you think it is.

"Usually all the players are manageable because they have gone through the youth teams, they have survived in teams in dressing rooms."

Arsenal have this week had to sort the fallout from striker Marouane Chamakh being photographed smoking a shisha pipe with Morocco international team-mate Adel Taarabt hours after they had lost at Loftus Road.

Wenger said the matter had been deal with "internally", adding it was "not the best thing to do".

The Frenchman, however, stressed it was "too early to answer" whether Chamakh would still be at the club next season, with Germany international Lukas Podolski set for a £10million summer move to Emirates Stadium.

"We want him to focus completely, without smoking, until the end of the season," Wenger said.

Wenger does not want Sunday's showdown to be about anything other than how his players perform.

"If you look at the big games you do not have to say too much," he said.

"You make sure your team plays at its best and do not focus too much on your opponent because there are so many players you could focus on that the most important thing lies in your own camp."