Kevin De Bruyne insisted Manchester City "don't care" if they win every game by huge margins and defended their performance in a slender 1-0 victory over West Ham on Wednesday.
Quadruple-seeking City, who were playing three days after beating Chelsea on penalties in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley, recorded their fourth straight Premier League victory to remain one point behind leaders Liverpool.
Throughout that run, City have topped West Ham, Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal while also beating Schalke, Newport County and Chelsea again in other competitions.
However, while the Reds returned to winning ways in style by thrashing Watford 5-0 at Anfield, only a second-half Sergio Aguero penalty, awarded after Felipe Anderson bundled substitute Bernardo Silva over, separated City and West Ham at the Etihad Stadium.
Yet De Bruyne thought City's display was good and said the team were more concerned with winning than the final scoreline.
"I think we played very well but the only thing we didn’t do was score [more]," the Belgian said.
All that matters is the win!
— Manchester City (@ManCity) February 27, 2019
1-0 #MCIWHU #mancity pic.twitter.com/JugCUnE1Yc
"I don't think we give one chance away to West Ham. Besides not scoring [more], I think we played very well.
"I think the most important thing is creating chances, some ricocheted away, some were just the last pass wasn't there, it happens. In the end we won the game and it's very important.
"The performance was good. I know people expect us to win every game 5-0 but we don't care.
"We played two and a half days ago, a hard game, and we performed well again tonight."
Next up for Pep Guardiola's side is a visit to Bournemouth before the Citizens return home to take on Watford.
After that, the focus turns to the Champions League, where the reigning Premier League champions will look to push past Schalke at the Etihad having won the first leg 3-2 despite a Nicolas Otamendi red card.