Manchester City midfielder Fernandinho has described City’s win over Southampton as the “most important game of the season in an interview with Manchester Evening News.

Fernandinho also stressed that Manchester City need to “keep at this quality for the whole year”. This is certainly City’s problem at the moment, interspersing moments of brilliance with some truly turgid performances.

The central midfielder also promised a different, improved Manchester City to come, going into Wednesday’s game against Sunderland with “more confidence” than before.

This should come as little surprise to City fans, as Manchester City have time and again proved that they are a confidence team. The win against Bayern Munich should be seen as the major factor in the win against Southampton at the weekend. After a poor run, City have now won two very tricky games against decent opposition.

Manchester City will have to hope that this up-swell in morale will tide them over, as they have lost both Kompany and Mangala for the next game.

This weekends win is all the more important given Chelsea dropped points in a goalless draw against Sunderland. Manchester City have shown before that they love to capitalize on rivals mistakes and they definitely did that against the Saints.

Manchester City will have to hope that this up-swell in morale will tide them over, as they have lost both Kompany and Mangala for the next game. Kompany pulled a hamstring, and Mangala’s red card will see him suspended for the midweek game. But with Manchester City coming off the back of arguably their best game of the season, you would hope that they will take this momentum and use it to steamroll over Sunderland. That is not to take the game for granted, but when City are playing at the top of heir game there are few clubs that can hold them back. Sunderland have shown their defensive nous against Chelsea though, so City will definitely have to put in a strong performance.

I’d definitely echo Fernandinho’s sentiments that Manchester City need to keep up the pace, as this has frequently been the difference between them and league leaders Chelsea, whose consistent performances have seen them prematurely crowned champions by some members of the British press. If Manchester City can show a similar dominance in games, and not switch off at key moments they can certainly put forward a strong challenge for the title once more.