The Brazilian sees Saturday’s visit to the Premier League championship outsiders as crucial to his team’s hopes of lifting the title.
Manchester City narrowed the gap on leaders Chelsea to three points thanks to their resounding 3-0 win at faltering champions Manchester United on Tuesday.
With two games now in hand, Fernandinho knows they can’t afford to slip off the pace by allowing Arsenal to revive their own fading aspirations with a win at the Emirates Stadium.
“This is going to be the key game for us,” said the 28-year-old.
“We want to win this game to put some pressure on Chelsea and we’ll see what happens after that.”
“It will be difficult for us. They are playing at home with their fans, so we need to be ready.”
“At the beginning of the season it was a little bit difficult for us but after that we learnt a lot and we have been better away from home.”
“We have got some good results and we need to keep our performances at the same level to get the championship,” completed the former Shakhtar Donetsk player.
