City have 10 games remaining and know their title destiny is in their own hands.
Manuel Pellegrini's men climbed to third in the table by thrashing Fulham 5-0 on Saturday.
They still trail leaders Chelsea by six points but have three games in hand on the Londoners. They have also played two games fewer than second-placed Liverpool, whom they trail by two points.
The battle is tight but Zabaleta hopes City can pull through with a bit more to spare than when they famously clinched glory in the last minutes of the season two years ago.
Zabaleta said: "Hopefully, it won't be the same as last time we won the title because it is going to be difficult.
"But as I have said before, we just need to keep focused on what we are doing now.
"We need to try to win every game but everything is in our hands.
"We don't have an excuse now. We only have Premier League games and we have time to recover well between the games.
"We know it is going to be very tough until the end but we have a great team, we have belief enough to win this title.
"Everything depends on us. We just need to keep working hard and winning games.
"Hopefully we can celebrate something at the end of this season."
City face a test of their credentials with two difficult away games in the coming week.
They travel to fallen champions and rivals Manchester United on Tuesday before heading to fellow challengers Arsenal next weekend.
United have failed to keep pace with the leaders this season but Zabaleta expects the derby to have lost none of its edge and is anticipating a difficult night at Old Trafford.
The Argentina international, 29, said: "It doesn't matter, the situation of United. The game is special for both teams.
"We know how important it is to win the game for the players, the fans, the club.
"That is why we need to go there and try to win the game.
"We know Chelsea at the moment are on the top and even if we have got three games in hand we need to win there and see what happens next game.
"We have won at Old Trafford recently and hopefully we can do it again.
"But it is not just the United game. We need to win all of them."