James Milner hails "gutsy" Liverpool performance

Liverpool defender James Milner has admitted that his side were far from their best during their 1-0 victory over Manchester City this evening.

Georginio Wijnaldum opened the scoring after just eight minutes at Anfield, but the expected goal-fest never materialised despite the match pitting the league's two highest-scoring teams against each other.

Liverpool did enough to pick up a fourth consecutive victory, though, moving them four points clear of City and six behind league leaders Chelsea in the Premier League table.

"It's a tough game, they're a top, top team. It was just about the result. Arguably it's one of the worst performances for how we want to play. But it was a gutsy performance," Milner told BT Sport.

"We had to grind out the result. You can't always win games the way you want. It's a massive victory. There's a long way to go but it's pleasing to be up there at Christmas."

The victory means that Liverpool have set a new club record for the Premier League era of 43 points at the halfway stage of a season.