Dan Burn says that preparations at Newcastle United this week must be centred around facing "the best team in the world" at St James' Park on Sunday.
Pep Guardiola's Manchester City will roll into Toon having started the Premier League season in immaculate style after beating West Ham 2-0 and then hammering AFC Bournemouth 4-0. With the likes of Erling Haaland, İlkay Gundogan and Kevin De Bruyne in great early season form, the Magpies face one of their toughest tests of the campaign but Burn is fully focused on the task in hand.
Burn told Chronicle Live: "City to me are the best team in the world. It will be a good measuring stick to see where we are compared to them.
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"That's where we want to be at some point. Obviously, we don't know when that will be or how far away, but it's always a tough test. You want to play against the best players and do well. We have until Sunday now to prepare for it."
Newcastle already have as many points after two games this season as they did after nine matches in the 2021/22 season. Fan favourite Burn watched on from afar last autumn as a Brighton player and lifelong United supporter.
Burn said: "There's a big mentality shift. We want that winning mentality, winning is a habit so we come into every game wanting and expecting to win. I think it was important that we took a clean sheet at Brighton even though we couldn't pick up the win."
Burn has also spoken about the level of support from the 3,100 fans at the Amex Stadium on Saturday after fans overcame travel issues - due to a train staff going on strike - and the long distance to get behind their team.
Burn added: "I know a lot of the fans set off at 4am on Saturday morning. We're sorry that we couldn't get the win for them but it was a good day out for them and we still performed well."
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