WOUNDED MANCHESTER CITY READY FOR LIVERPOOL, SAYS KOMPANY

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany admitted the Premier League champions’ pride has been wounded by a recent shock run of three defeats in four Premier League games to fall seven points behind league leaders Liverpool.

But ahead of the visit of Jurgen Klopp’s men to the Etihad on Thursday, Kompany issued a rallying cry to the City squad and fans to keep fighting to become the first side in a decade to retain the Premier League.

“We shouldn’t focus too much on points at the moment, we know if we can play to our potential we are a good team,” Kompany told City’s website.

“Our pride has been hurt over the last few weeks but we have everything to play for and it depends on us.”

City bounced back from consecutive defeats to Crystal Palace and Leicester with a 3-1 win at Southampton to move back into second above Tottenham.

However, City have only won one of seven meetings with Liverpool during Pep Guardiola’s three seasons in charge.

Kompany, though, called on his side to avenge a painful Champions League quarterfinal exit to Liverpool last season.

“It’s one of those key games you live for. Every living soul that comes into the stadium on Thursday has to be ready to fight and give it to them,” added the Belgian.

“And we should be able to pull everything out of the locker for that game.”