Dazzling De Bruyne sets pace to wrestle title back from Liverpool

Kevin de Bruyne believes Manchester City need to get off to a fast start to wrestle the title back from Liverpool.

The midfielder starred as City claimed a 3-1 win at Molineux on Monday in their opening Premier League game.

De Bruyne scored the opener from the spot before having a hand in goals for Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus.

City lost the title to Liverpool last season and De Bruyne knows what it will take to reclaim the crown.

He said: “If the title pace is (the) same as the last few years it’ll be hard. We want to fight with Liverpool. That’s what sport is all about.

“With just two weeks’ training, it was always going to be hard, but we kept it tight and I think we did really well.

“Wolves have been a bogey team for us, so to come here and do this performance is good.

“We were missing some players. We will go game by game, Thursday (in the Carabao Cup against Bournemouth) is another one.”

It was City’s first competitive game since long-serving playmaker David Silva left the club and De Bruyne feels they have the players to cope without the Spaniard.

He added: “Everyone has to play with their own quality. David (Silva) is the master of tight spaces, but in Phil, Bernardo (Silva), Riyad (Marhez) and Raheem (Sterling), we have players who can do the job. But obviously he is a big miss.”

Raul Jimenez pulled a goal back to make it 2-1 after De Bruyne and Foden put the visitors into a commanding lead. However, Wolves could not repeat last season’s 3-2 comeback win as Jesus fired in off Conor Coady in added time to clinch victory.