COME ON , FEEL THE NOISE!

Defiant Dias: The more stick we get at City, the more we like it

RUBEN DIAS says Manchester City are loving the fact they are the team everyone loves to hate.

Pep Guardiola’s state-owned Treble winners have become the dominant force in English football and are on course for an unprecedented fourth straight Premier League title.

They are favourites to retain the Champions League and look set to dominate at home and abroad for years to come.

That success has come against a backdrop of suspicion, with City facing 115 charges of breaking the Premier League’s Financial Fair Play rules, with rival clubs and fans envious of their new-found success.

City defender Dias says such jealously towards the champions serves to push them even more and the players relish the fact so many outside of the club want to see them fail.

Dias (right) said: “People love to talk and the more you win, the more successful you are as a team and an individual, the more people want to take you down. We take it.

“Please make noise around us because it will just make it bigger every time we win again.

“There has been a noise before and people love the scenario of us not making it, but we love doing it.

“It makes it most difficult to keep those levels up and

I’m not talking about a

Treble,

I ’m talking about winning trophies again.

“After a season like we had, it’s very easy for you to relax.

“But we know that the biggest thing we can do is, when we are on the pitch, be blind to it and just keep on doing it.”

Under Guardiola, City have won five of the last six titles, and can go top of the table tomorrow with victory over Everton in the lunchtime kick-off at the Etihad Stadium.

Although success this season is the squad’s immediate aim, Dias believes there is a desire to continue that golden period for years to come.

“We want this club to grow, and the consistency with which we keep winning is what makes a club as big as it can be,” the Portuguese told the MEN.

“There’s going to be more hatred and more people trying to take us down and there are going to be more opponents.”

With City two points behind leaders Liverpool with a game in hand, facing Copenhagen in the last-16 of the Champions League and Luton in the FA Cup fifth round, Dias says they are right where they want to be.

“This is what we’re here for,” added the centre-back.

“Since I arrived at this club, this is the one thing where I felt the most difference from many other teams.

“When you get to this stage it’s very beautiful, but it’s only very beautiful with the right people at your side.

“Many people at this time of the year start talking that they’re injured or feel a bit of pain.

“In other contexts, that’s when people start to feel a bit this or that, but here everyone wants to be involved and play.

“That mentality has been decisive over the last few years. We know what we have to do to win again.”

‘Ple ‘Please make more noise around us because it will just just make it bigger every time we win again’