Kevin De Bruyne has become the latest Manchester City player to insist Pep Guardiola’s side are nothing thinking about Liverpool and the Premier League title race. However, the Belgian has not closed the door entirely on the reigning champions dragging themselves back into contention.

City currently sit fourth in the table - 12 points behind the Reds,. who have a game in hand - after thrashing Ipswich Town 6-0 on Sunday.

Now unbeaten from their last five league matches, they will hope to have turned a corner after a run which saw them win only one - and lose nine - of 13 matches in all competitions between the end of October and Boxing Day.

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City have already lost six times in the Premier League this season. Also drawing five times, they have already dropped 28 points and only won half of their matches.

They dropped 33 points all season when finishing second to Liverpool in 2019/20, while their maximum points total this season if they won all 16 of their remaining matches is 86 points.

Such a total was enough for City to win the title in 2020/21, when the Reds endured a collapse of their own. Yet four of their other five title wins under the Spaniard have come after obtaining 90+ points.

Even when falling below such a total, they still recorded 89 points in 2022/23 when finishing five points ahead of Arsenal.

City need near-perfection and an almighty drop-off from Liverpool to bring themselves back into contention.

And De Bruyne is well-aware of such a fact, insisting his team aren’t looking at the Premier League leaders, at least ‘for the moment’ as he conceded they have dropped too many points already this season.

"I don't think we need to look at Liverpool for the moment, you know," he told Sky Sports after City’s 6-0 win at Ipswich. "We just need to try and do a better job and get more wins on the board, and obviously we have a big game in Paris now.

"We've not really got the time to think about that. The goal is to win as many games as possible. We know we dropped too many points."