John Stones pinpoints area Man City must improve to spark Premier League title run

John Stones wants his Manchester City defensive teammates to focus on clean sheets for the final four months of the season, to help their attacking colleagues maintain the ten-game winning run.

City beat Everton on Saturday to make it ten wins in a row, with six in the Premier League to throw themselves back into title contention alongside Liverpool and Arsenal. Pep Guardiola and other first-team figures have earmarked the need to continue a winning run like those that have characterised previous title wins.

However, Stones believes the squad must get better at keeping clean sheets if they want to continue the current form, with the Everton result only City's sixth clean sheet in the league all season.

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"Credit to the boys for getting a clean sheet at the back. It was three points against a really difficult team," he said. "The boys that came off the bench made a huge impact, and everyone played a massive role in keeping a clean sheet. We handled it really well today.

“The clean sheet is massive. Our mentality never changes. We go into every game – as defenders – wanting a clean sheet, it’s a platform and we fight for that. Now, we have to go on a run and get some more which sets a platform for us to go and win games – in previous seasons we’ve done, and I don’t see why we can’t this season as well.

“We focus all our energy on the task in hand and that was today’s game and getting the three points. There’s still a long way to go. We’ve got to focus on us – I say it every season, but we focus on the next one now