Kyle Walker has revealed Manchester City's 4-1 win over Liverpool in April acted as a catalyst for their third consecutive Premier League title.
Confirmed as champions on Saturday evening after Arsenal's 1-0 loss at Nottingham Forest, Pep Guardiola's side have held off the Gunners' pursuit of top spot despite looking out of the picture on more than one occasion.
A five-game period between November and January, which saw City lose to Brentford, held at home by Everton before suffering defeat against Manchester United tested the resolve of the Sky Blues amid Arsenal's surge up the table.
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Finding their form in the middle of February, the league leaders are currently on an 11-game winning streak which the Gunners have had no response to. Pointing to which of these victories had the great impact on the team's ability to chase down top spot, Walker has chosen his side's impressive display versus the Reds on April 1.
“We just went on an incredible run, they had a few hiccups and we capitalised on it and we’ve managed to end up where we have now," he told Mancity.com of making up ground on Arsenal.
"It’s the players we’ve got. We’re a bunch of lads who have achieved so much over the last number of years and we understand the standards we’ve set. As for inspiration, there's the captains, managers and so on but we drive ourselves - we achieved so much over the past five or six years, but we knew the bar wasn’t high enough at the start of the season.
“It wasn’t good enough and when we came back after the World Cup, we had to kick on and fair play to the lads – that Liverpool game kicked it off.
"We wanted to prove anyone doubting us wrong - it wasn’t good enough. With the lads we have in the dressing room we always believe we can do something."
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