• ‘We needed victory to bring up our confidence,’ says goalscorer • City cut gap to Liverpool to eight points before Merseyside derby

Rodri has revealed Manchester City “partied” in the dressing room after Tuesday’s 4-1 win at Burnley in a mark of how significant the victory was to Pep Guardiola’s champions.

City had won only one of their previous five games, yet the result at Turf Moor, which featured two Gabriel Jesus goals and one each from Rodri and Riyad Mahrez, impressed. It cut the deficit to Liverpool to eight points – until Wednesday night’s Merseyside derby, at least – and Rodri said the team celebrated hard.

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“We needed this victory,” the midfielder said. “It was a good performance. Sometimes when you lose or draw your confidence can go down, and after this victory we were really having a party in the dressing room because we needed it to bring up the mentality and confidence of the team.

“Everyone is human, and when you don’t get the results you need to get people’s confidence up, this was an important victory. We will fight until the end because that is our mentality and identity.”

Jesus’s goals took him to seven in 18 appearances. The Brazilian was deputising for the injured Sergio Agüero, who has 13 in 16 games, and Jesus wants to emulate the Argentinian’s strike rate.

“I know my qualities – I know I can score,” Jesus said. “I have to score when I play. Sergio scores every time. That is my ambition. I want to play and score every time.

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“The win is a confidence [booster] for us. This time the Premier League is so difficult. Liverpool are now eight points in front of us. We have to play all the matches like a final to win. We knew the game was going to be difficult, we know this when we come to play against Burnley, but we played good again.”