Man City star Fernandinho reveals the KEY moment in Liverpool Premier League title battle

The City midfielder insisted Pep Guardiola’s men have fought “like animals” all season to drag themselves back into pole position.

But he insisted that 2-1 victory on a super-charged night at the Etihad in early January was the spark for a run of 14 wins in 15 matches which has put them top with three games to go.

“If you look back to January, they [Liverpool] could have been 10 points clear after our game,” he said. “We didn’t want that, we reduced the gap to four points and now we are one point up.

“That is the way the Premier League is going to be decided and I hope we can do our job and win those three games, and be champions again.”

Fernandinho maintained City are taking nothing for granted given Liverpool will be ready to take revenge should Guardiola’s men slip up in one of their final three fixtures.

But he maintained that the fight they have displayed in recovering from Champions League disappointment against Tottenham to post wins over the north Londoners and local rivals Manchester United on Wednesday has been impressive.

“We have shown in general every game [that we want to be champions]. Especially last Saturday after the ‘defeat’ against Tottenham, the way we played from the first minute,” Fernandinho said.

“We showed the desire in competing for every ball like animals. I think this is the spirit of a team that wants to be champions.”

Fernandinho twisted his knee and was removed from the fray as a precautionary measure against United despite both player and manager appearing to suggest he could have played on.

But with Kevin de Bruyne also likely to be missing for the trip to Burnley, Guardiola will be hoping a scan reveals no lasting damage.

“We have to recover as soon as possible and try to be fit and be ready,” said Fernandinho.

“It is going to be a very important [and a] very difficult game for us. Burnley are always difficult.

“They have a specific way to play and it is not easy to go there. They drew with Chelsea last Monday. It is always tough to go there.

“Before the United game the important thing we talked about was we cannot concede any goals because we have the players up front who can score the goals for us.”

He added: “Now we have three games to play, three finals, and we want to try to win those games.”

City will follow the visit to Burnley by playing host to Leicester and travelling to Brighton on the final day of the season.

source: express.co.uk