De Bruyne relishing competitive title race

The City midfielder is working his way back to his best after a succession of knee injuries, and is enjoying the league's competitive nature this season.

"There's two teams and even Tottenham, who have so many points at this stage of the season," said De Bruyne. "It's quite remarkable because in a lot of seasons you would already be 10 or 12 points ahead, but this season it's tight and I like it. I like it to be competitive. In the end that's what it's all about."

City are currently four points behind leaders Liverpool. Last season, however, they finished 19 points clear of their nearest rivals, and had the title wrapped up with five games to spare.

"We just need to try and win our games. We cannot do anything about Liverpool in their games, we need to try do what we do and win as many games as possible and see what happens."