John Stones has dismissed the idea that Sunday’s showdown with Liverpool will decide the destiny of the Premier League title. But the Manchester City defender feels that his team’s experience of seeing out a season will stand them in good stead in the next few weeks.
Unlike Liverpool, who blew up in 2014 to let City overhaul them and claim the crown, the Blues have never let the league title slip from a winning position, and the last time they were involved in a tight finish with Jurgen Klopp’s team - in 2018-19 - they handled the pressure to hold off the Merseysiders and win it on the final day of the season.
But that season run-in did not involve a head-to-head between the two teams, and this time Liverpool have it in their own hands to leapfrog City by winning on Sunday. Stones, however, denied that Sunday’s meeting is a winner-takes-all affair, with both teams still having another seven games left afterwards.
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Asked if the match will be decisive, Stones said: “I don't think so. I don't think about it too much like that because you can get carried away. Obviously, it's an important game, we're first and second in the table – everyone knows that – but we have to concentrate on us and how we play our football and don't change our football.
“This week is vital for us in how we prepare and we stay calm about that because we've been in situations like this before. Three years ago it came down to the last game, so we've been in these situations before and the experience of that time we definitely learned from.
“We went 14 games unbeaten and we know every game is so important to us. We try and keep on a winning run and keep as many clean sheets as we can and keep improving as individuals and as a team.”
Stones was interviewed in the aftermath of City’s 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarter-final first leg, and he said that the Liverpool clash had not even crossed his mind until that game was over. He said: “I like focusing all my energy on the game in hand and what's in front of me, which was tonight and now switch my focus to the game on Sunday and we give everything and fight for everything as we always do and prepare well in these next few days for that.
“All we can do is concentrate on ourselves, take one step at a time - it is a cliche but it is how we operate - and definitely be positive about these next few weeks.”
Sunday’s game is being billed by the broadcasters as virtual title decider, but Stones said that the City camp is unaffected by the clamour: “We don't get sucked into all the outside noise and concentrate on what we do.
“That's all the time I've been here we've been very focused and tunnel vision on what's ahead of us. What we want to get out of these things, what we're striving to achieve and that's another hurdle for us to get over and be successful, which everyone in that dressing room wants to come out on the winning side and we'll do everything in our power to do that.”
Stones is in line to play in the game, alongside Aymeric Laporte, with Ruben Dias still unfit, and he says that, while the players are all aware of the magnitude of the game, the approach will be no different to any other match.
“You've got to do what you can as an individual to approach a game and that's how anyone who wants to do that is reading it or taking note of it,” he said. ”Personally I just focus on what I need to do, I don't think of what's going on on the outside.
“We're human beings and we know what is riding on this game and how important it is to us but every game this season has been a final to us so we don't approach this any differently. There's obviously that extra buzz about the game personally and what it means but it is just another game.
“It doesn't necessarily mean what will end up by the end of the season. Every game is a factor to where you finish at the end of the season.
“We approach it the same as we do Carabao Cup, FA Cup, Champions League, whatever, whoever we play and I think that's why we've been so successful over the years especially, with the respect we give to the opposition and how we concentrate on ourselves and know what we can affect, which is how we train this week, prepare this week mentally and physically and give everything for ourselves and our team-mates.”
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