Xherdan Shaqiri has dismissed Liverpool’s clash with Manchester City as a Premier League title decider.
Thursday’s match-up at the Etihad Stadium could see Jurgen Klopp’s side further extend their current seven-point lead in the battle for top spot.
Pep Guardiola ramped up further pressure on his City team by insisting that anything other than a win against the Reds would end the champions’ defence.
But Shaqiri sees no added significance to the meeting between the sides.
He said: “For us, we don’t go there to take Man City out of the race.
“We go there for a Premier League game. We go there to make a good performance first of all and try to win games.
“That’s the only goal that we have. There are not other things in our minds at the moment. We just have to keep going, to work hard every day in training to win games.
“I’m sure when we keep going like this we are going to be very successful.”
Liverpool remain unbeaten this season in the league and remain on course to lift a first title in 29 years despite City and Tottenham remaining in the hunt.
Previous sides in Anfield history have crumbled under both the weight of expectation and pressure from their closest challengers in the chasing pack.
Shaqiri, however, feels that the current crop of players are capable of holding their nerve in the wake of Saturday’s comprehensive 5-1 thrashing of Arsenal.
“The pressure is always here. If you are top of the table, everybody is coming after you, everybody wants to beat you,” he added.
“In the end, it’s not really important where we stand because we want to win games and we want to win games until the end.
“Then we will see what happens. We are in a very good way.”