Manchester City left-back Benjamin Mendy believes the competitiveness of the Premier League is great motivation for him and his teammates.

With Liverpool leading the way after six games, the Frenchman has praised the strength of their title rivals but the fullback says the Reds’ great start will only focus minds within the City squad to pick up more points:

“Liverpool is very strong team with good players, so it’s nice to have this in this league and it’s what we like. It will be a very good league this year again.”

“The people like to watch this game, they know in this game the points are very important. So, the people wait for this game, but you have a lot of points in the year that we can take – so we need to be focused on each one.”

It certainly hasn’t been a straightforward start to the campaign for Pep Guardiola’s side. The shock defeat to Norwich City prompted questions about the team’s prospects of winning a third title in a row.

However, since then, the Citizens have responded emphatically with a 3-0 win against Shakhtar in the Champions League, an 8-0 thumping of Watford in the league and another 3-0 victory versus Preston in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.

With Mendy now back fully fit, Guardiola also has another option in the backline and the Frenchman will be hoping to make a telling contribution this season.