John Stones reacts to Liverpool FC challenge to Man City title hunt

John Stones says it has been business as usual from Pep Guardiola despite Manchester City’s slip in the Premier League title race.

Liverpool’s midweek win over Leeds has left Jurgen Klopp’s team just three points behind as the Blues head to Everton tomorrow.

A second successive defeat for Guardiola’s men would mean Liverpool can claim top spot by winning the game in hand they will have after this weekend - they are playing Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday.

City have had a week of training in which to purge the unusual feeling of a defeat from their systems, but Stones said there has been no discernible change in attitude or approach either from the manager or the squad of players.

Asked what the message has been, Stones replied: “Nothing different. We know our roles and responsibilities as players and as a collective.

“We have got to keep pushing each other and keep striving to win games and pick up as many points as we can.

“Give everything in each game we play in and focus on ourselves, don’t worry about the outside noise and get carried away with things.

“I think we have been very good over the years at doing that and staying focused when you hear people say things are getting tight or maybe a bit on edge. We definitely don’t feel like that as a squad and me as a player. It is football, things happen.

“You win games, you lose games, you might draw games and you cannot control what other teams do around you or how they set up against you. We can only focus on ourselves and we are definitely doing that.”

Rather than worrying about the fact that Liverpool have trimmed a 12-point lead to just three with a run of six straight wins, Stones says City are instead focussing on the fact that they are top, with