Fast start key to dethroning Liverpool, says Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne

Kevin De Bruyne believes Manchester City need to get off to a fast start to wrestle the title back from Liverpool.

The midfielder starred as City claimed a 3-1 win at Molineux on Monday in their opening Premier League game.

De Bruyne scored the opener from the spot before having a hand in goals for Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus.

City lost the title to Liverpool last season and De Bruyne knows what it will take to reclaim the crown.

He told the club’s official site: “If the title pace is (the) same as the last few years it’ll be hard. We want to fight with Liverpool. That’s what sport is all about.

“With just two weeks training, it was always going to be hard. But we kept it tight and I think we did really well and we know you have to start well.

“Wolves have been a bogey team for us, so to come here and do this performance is good.

• Wolves 1-1 Man City (Aug 2018)
• Man City 3-0 Wolves (Jan 2019)
• Man City 0-2 Wolves (Oct 2019)
• Wolves 3-2 Man City (Dec 2019)
• Wolves 1-3 Man City (Sep 2020)

“We were missing some players. We will go game by game, Thursday (in the Carabao Cup against Bournemouth) is another one.”

It was City’s first competitive game since long-serving playmaker David Silva left the club and De Bruyne feels they have the players to cope without the Spaniard.

He added: “Everyone has to play with their own quality. David (Silva) is the master of tight spaces, but in Phil, Bernardo (Silva), Riyad (Marhez) and Raheem (Sterling), we have players who can do the job. But obviously he is a big miss.

“We have so many attacking players, I can slot them in and they can do the rest depending on the formation of our opponents.”

Raul Jimenez pulled a goal back to make it 2-1 after De Bruyne and Foden put the visitors into a commanding league.

But Wolves could not repeat last season’s 3-2 comeback win as Jesus fired in off Conor Coady in added time.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side failed to build on their opening win at Sheffield United and midfielder Ruben Neves tried to take the positives.

“It was a really hard game for us, but I think we adjusted at half-time and showed in the second half what we can do,” he told the club’s official site.

“To create a lot of chances against a team like Man City is not easy at all. I think we did a great second half, but let’s see the mistakes we did in the first to grow and improve for the next game.

“We know Man City are a great team. They have a lot of quality in their squad. I think we conceded the goal at our best moment of the first half, the moment we were controlling more of the game.

“Then the penalty came, it was difficult for us to react. I think we were a bit unbalanced after the first goal. We need to improve on that because we cannot unbalance ourselves, even if we concede.”