‘Please make noise’ - Man City star sends defiant message to rival fans amid title race v Liverpool & Arsenal

Ruben Dias has called on rival fans to keep ‘making noise’ and criticising Manchester City, as it will make it even sweeter when the team ‘win again’.

The Premier League champions have returned from the Club World Cup in ominous form and have won the last five league games - nine in all competitions - and have a fully fit squad that features Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland once again. The recent run that has seen City move into second place, level on points with Arsenal and just two behind Liverpool, but crucially the Blues have a game in hand on both sides.

City are also still alive in the FA Cup and Champions League, with the prospect of a double treble on the cards. Despite that, the team have faced criticism at times this season, especially prior to Christmas when they went on a four-game winless run in the league.

Pep Guardiola was particularly irked by some of the coverage at the time and repeatedly insisted his side were playing well even if the results weren’t forthcoming. It’s an assessment Dias obviously shares and the defender claimed that City’s detractors have increased in recent years following their success, with rival supporters now taking real joy in any perceived downturn in fortunes.

“People love to talk and the more you win, the more successful you are as a team and an individual, the more people want to take you down,” the Portugal international told the Manchester Evening News.

"Please make noise around us because it will just make it bigger every time we win again. That’s purely how I take it. There has been a noise before and people love the scenario of us not making it but we love doing it.”

After claiming the treble last season, it would only be natural for motivation levels to drop this term, but Dias insisted that is not the case.

"After a season like we had it is very easy for you to relax, it is very easy for you to feel like you’ve accomplished something and obviously we have accomplished something very big and special to all of us, to the club and to the fans. But we know that the biggest thing we can do is, when we are on the pitch, be blind to it and just keep on doing it.

"There’s nothing in our minds saying ‘we’ve won a treble, we are so good, it’s going to be easy now’. It is exactly the opposite; it's going to be more difficult. There is going to be more hatred and more people trying to take us down and there are going to be more opponents. We take it as it is because this is the normal process of winning. We will be ready for it.

“In terms of motivation, since I arrived at this club this is the one thing where I most felt the difference from many other teams - teams I've been in and other teams I've heard about.”