• Premier League

Barry: City can end poor record at Arsenal

Gareth Barry wants this generation of City players to end the club's league woe away at Arsenal © PA Photos

Enlarge

Related Links

• News: Joe Hart not bothered by critics
  
• News: FA opts not to bring action against Mancini
  
• News: Tevez spurred on by Mancini RvP claim
  

Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry believes the club are motivated by their awful record at Arsenal as they aim to end a wait of almost four decades for a league win away against the Gunners.

The Premier League champions head to north London on Sunday in the knowledge that they have not taken three points at either Highbury or the Emirates Stadium since 1975, when Tony Book's team secured a 3-2 victory.

And although Sergio Aguero earned them a League Cup win at the Emirates in November 2011, it is six years since City scored their only league goal at Arsenal's new ground - finished by Da Marcus Beasley in 2007.

But Barry, 31, is not worried about the stats and feels City can use the poor run to their advantage. "Football is like that sometimes but 37 years is extraordinary and records like that are rare but [are] there to be broken," Barry told City's official website.

"We have to go to the Emirates, play as well as we know we are capable of and see if we can put an end to our poor run of league results on their ground."

Arsenal drew at the Etihad Stadium in September and Barry admits he expected the Gunners, who are 18 points behind league leaders Manchester United, to be closer to the top of the table.

"They played some great football and they surprised me just how good they were that day and though we drew 1-1, they will be disappointed they've not played as well as that more often this season," he said.

City hope to keep up the pressure on United on a pivotal day in the title race, with Sir Alex Ferguson's team hosting Liverpool earlier on Sunday.

"We know there is a need for us to keep winning games because seven points is not a small gap and we can't allow that to increase, but sometimes the pressure can actually flip around to the team in front and the one chasing can go into games more relaxed. We're not going to let it overly worry us at this point," Barry said. "This is a really important stage of the season because, in effect, the run-in has begun but the good thing is that we've won our last three games and seem to be coming into peak form at exactly the right time."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.