Stones in Treble yell after toughing it out

CITY had to withstand pressure at Bournemouth to defend their narrow lead and earn three vital points in the Premier League title race and John Stones said the hard fought win reminded him of the games that led the Blues to the Treble last season.

- JOE BRAY

City won their game in hand over Liverpool to move to within a point of the Premier League leaders, and still a point ahead of Arsenal.

The top three have now all played 26 games At Bournemouth, City were again guilty of wasting chances and have only scored once in each of their last three games. But back-toback 1-0 wins and 6 two vital clean sheets to prompted Pep Guardiola call his side 'Supermen' for  their ability to dig deep amid fatigue and injury problems, something Stones echoed after the win at the Vitality Stadium.

Asked by City media about the excitement of competing for trophies at the business-end of the season, Stones' response compared the narrow win at Bournemouth to the hard-fought victories that City produced at the same point last season en-route to the treble.