Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini says his side's near-future objective is to take as many points as possible from the busy Christmas period.
The Citizens host Crystal Palace on Saturday, the first of five home games coming up in the next month.
"That is very important, not for the pressure we can put on Chelsea but it is very important to add three more points and to finish the first round of games with the most amount of points we can," Pellegrini said.
"We cannot drop any more points here at home because we already dropped the same number of points we did last season."
Meanwhile, the Chilean confirmed Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic are all ruled out of the game and will be hoping to get goals from one of his many offensive midfielders.
"The strikers [Edin Dzeko, Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic], the three of them, are out for tomorrow," the manager added.
"We will try to play in another way. I hope that midfielders will arrive from the second line and we will score in another way.
"I know we play against a team that defend very well also so we will see what the best solution to play without them is."
