Manchester City expected Liverpool to temporarily shunt them down to second place in the Premier League on Saturday, before they hit back at Burnley to restore their lead.
Liverpool beat Watford in the early kick-off to go ahead of City for the first time in four months, but a 2-0 win at Burnley put City back on top ahead of next week's showdown between the sides at the Etihad.
Ilkay Gundogan revealed after the Burnley win that City players were aware of Liverpool's progress before their game at Turf Moor, and fully expected them to beat Watford, as he urged his side to continue to focus on themselves - starting next Sunday.
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"That's how it's gonna look until the end of the season," Gundogan told CityTV in response to a question about Liverpool's result, outlining what City expect from their rivals in the run-in.
"Obviously we have the direct duel next week so our target is to open up the gap a little more. But we know they are very strong at the moment. Probably we shouldn't expect them to drop a lot of points in the remaining few games.
"It's our responsibility to play good football but more importantly successful football by winning games."
Asked about the mood in the dressing room, Gundogan insisted that City's squad are keen to approach every game seriously in the final two months of the season.
"It's very good, it's how it should be," said Gundogan of the morale.
"Obviously we had a couple of days of training after the international break. It was good for some players not to go international to have some time to rest. We need to recover well now, another game in a few days.
"It's very tough, we need to be prepared physically and mentally. Having the experience of previous seasons to play this amount of games helps us a lot. Now it's our responsibility to see every game as a final and make the best out of every single game."
Gundogan also gave a telling answer when asked about his own personal record of becoming the Premier League's top German goalscorer.
Choosing instead to focus on the team and season aims, he said: "I'm maybe proud, it doesn't really. From my point of view it's always important to help in the role I'm playing on and off the pitch for City as much as possible.
"That's how I see especially this part of the season. We have a lot of players, obviously, every single one wants to play in these games as well. Unfortunately you can only get 11 players on the pitch so it's about the team now and the spirits of the team to win as much as possible for the remaining part of the season."
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