John Stones believes Man City are back to the team who ‘destroyed England’ following two seriously impressive victories.
Pep Guardiola’s men followed up their dominant 3-1 victory at Chelsea in the Premier League with a 2-0 win at Manchester United on Wednesday night to seal a fourth consecutive Carabao Cup final place.
Stones is back to his best in a City shirt
And City look back to their best as well
Stones continued his fantastic resurgence alongside Ruben Dias in the City defence by scoring the opener, while Fernandinho grabbed the second as the visitors turned on the style.
Following an underwhelming 2019/20 campaign and a slow start to the current season, City are starting to look like the team who won back-to-back titles under Guardiola in 2018 and 2019.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, Stones warned the club’s rivals that they are out to dominate English football once again.
He said: “The past two games, here and at Chelsea, we’ve looked like the Man City who won the league and destroyed England.
Stones spoke to Sam Matterface after the win
“That’s something very hard to maintain and we knew that as players.
“We set high standards, we set a precedent for the league with how we played, and we’re starting to get back to that mentality and style of play.
“It’s something you can’t always put your finger on why it happens, or why it works, it just clicks sometimes.
“Over the past year it hasn’t been that way and it’s been frustrating for the players.
“In life, you always want things to be going good but it’s not always going to be that way, so I think mentally we’ve put our stamp on everything and showed everyone that we’re here to challenge for everything.
“We’re ready for the fight.”
Maguire is currently England’s first-choice centre-back ahead of Stones – but that may change
City’s form has coincided with a return to the starting XI for Stones, who had appeared to fall out of favour under Guardiola last season.
Stones has forced his way back into the side ahead of Aymeric Laporte and Nathan Ake, and talkSPORT host Jason Cundy says he would pick the City defender over Manchester United’s Harry Maguire.
“I’ve been very critical of John Stones over the years, he took unnecessary risks,” Cundy said.
“The partnership with Ruben Dias right now is currently the best in the league.
“If you ask me who I’d rather have right now between Stones and Harry Maguire, I’m having Stones.”