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Manchester City defender Kyle Walker has lifted the lid on the bizarre conversations he has with rival fans regarding his side's Premier League title battle against Liverpool while out walking his dogs.

The Reds returned to the summit on Sunday evening with a 2-0 victory at Cardiff City that put them two points clear of the reigning champions.

However, while Jurgen Klopp's men have just three fixtures remaining in the competition, Pep Guardiola's side crucially have a game in hand away to neighbours United on Wednesday night.

Despite their club lifting an all-time record 20 League Championships, United supporters have been reduced to the role of onlookers in this season's battle at the top.

Given that the two protagonists are their old foes plus what all-conquering former manager Sir Alex Ferguson described as their “noisy neighbours” they've been left with something of a Hobson's Choice when it comes to the destination of the trophy.

It seems that many United fans are pretty clear over who they would rather be top dogs though and England international Walker has had this made plain to him while out plodding with his own pooches.

With a smile, he told the Mirror : “United fans are in a difficult situation obviously.

“When I’m out and about or walking my dogs, United fans are coming up to me saying ‘we’d rather City win the league than Liverpool .'”

However the right-back is unconvinced that United's bark is worse than their bite though and is well aware that while many Old Trafford patrons would see a City title win the lesser of two evils rather than Liverpool finishing top of the pile for the first time in 29 years, that doesn't mean that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team are just going to hand them the three points they require to keep the destiny of the trophy in their own hands.

Although a 100 point total saw City enjoy a cakewalk to the title last season, they spurned the chance to secure their crown in a derby on April 7 when they relinquished a 2-0 half-time lead to lose 3-2.

Walker added: “It’s strange to hear but I can assure you the United players aren’t going to leave a red carpet and say ‘go on City, score past us’.

“They’re going to make it difficult because it’s a game of football and they’re fighting for the top four as well so they need the points.

“Obviously we could have won it against them last season and they scored a couple of good goals and got the victory.

“That was probably what every United fan wanted, with City not winning the title at the Etihad against United.

“But it’s one for the fans and it’s one for us to get closer to being the Premier League champions.”