John Stones 'will never stop learning' as he continues to raise the bar at Manchester City

John Stones has been likened to Franz Beckenbauer and spoken about in the same breath as England World Cup-winning captain Bobby Moore while mesmerising Premier League pundits with his play for treble winners Manchester City.

Yet the 30-year-old who was named in last season’s Premier League and Champions League teams of the season, still believes he is learning and improving and insists he just takes one game at a time.

In fact the 69-times capped England defender-turned-midfielder is so focussed on what is immediately ahead of him, he admits to having no clue as to who City play beyond Manchester United this weekend.

“I don’t look at fixtures lists and work out what might happen. I only ever know what the next game is,” he said.

“I have always been like that. It means I can focus all my energy on that game and not get carried away with things. All I can control is that game right in front of me.

“As a team we have to keep taking it game by game, focus all our energy on what's in front of us, not get ahead of ourselves. Keep doing what we're doing, keep focussing on ourselves. That's our biggest quality, staying in our own lane and focusing on what we can do.”

City are on course for what would be an unprecedented double treble. A 6-2 victory over Luton Town on Tuesday propelled them into the last eight of the FA Cup (they meet Newcastle at home), they are second in the Premier League a point behind Liverpool and poised to make the last eight of the Champions League as they hold a 3-1 advantage over Copenhagen ahead of next week’s second leg at the Etihad Stadium.

Stones, like teammates Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland, has missed large chunks of this season through injury, but with City on an 18-game unbeaten run he is