Guardiola not distracted by lead

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola has dismissed the importance of taking a four-point lead over Real Madrid in the La Liga title race.

Real dropped two points with a 1-1 draw at bottom side Almeria on Sunday and Barca took full advantage of their slip up, dispatching Malaga 4-1 at the Camp Nou.

But Guardiola, well aware that a similar stumble could come at any time for Barca, does not intend to let his players lower their intensity.

“They (Real) dropped points today, but that could happen to us too,” Guardiola said.

“We could drop points at any ground; it could happen against Racing (Santander) next week or against Hercules.”

“There is a long, long way to go and four points is nothing because Madrid are a very strong team.”

“We still have to go to the Santiago Bernabeu, to Villarreal, to Valencia and Sevilla,” he added.

“It will be very tough but we depend on ourselves and if we manage to play with the same intensity we have shown in the first half of the championship, we will have a great chance – it has been an extraordinary first half of the season.”

The win over Malaga saw Barca move onto 52 points from 19 games, two more than their haul at the same stage of the treble winning season of 2008-09.

“It’s an impressive total,” Guardiola said.

“When we got 50 points two years ago, I didn’t expect us to beat that, but these players have done it – they’ve been outstanding.”

For Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini, charged with fulfilling the ambitions of the club’s big-spending owners, the comprehensive loss was a step in the wrong direction.

“It’s difficult to take anything positive out of a 4-1 defeat,” Pellegrini said.

“Our objective is to move up the table, but we came up against a very strong team tonight.”