Confidence restored at City claims Zabaleta

Pablo Zabaleta believes confidence has been restored in the Manchester City ranks ahead of their meeting with Arsenal on Sunday.

The defender opened the scoring for City against Watford on Wednesday night with David Silva grabbing the second on his 200th league appearance in a 2-0 win.

But more importantly for Zabaleta, following back-to-back league defeats to Leicester City and Chelsea in which they conceded seven goals, City kept a clean sheet.

“We had the clean sheet we’ve been talking about and were solid defensively,” he said.

“It was an important win to get confidence back. We play Arsenal at the weekend and it will be a huge game.

(Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)

“We were really good at the back and we took our chances. We deserved to win.

“It had been a long time without a win, playing at home. It has been strange.”

The Argentine is now concentrating on chasing down Premier League leaders Chelsea who are seven points ahead of City at the top of the table after their 1-0 victory over Sunderland.

“We have to keep winning,” he added. “We have a lot of important games in December and we have to keep up with Chelsea. The team showed spirit to win.”