Man City’s Vincent Kompany: It will be a more competitive title race

Vincent Kompany believes the Premier League title race will be more competitive this season as Manchester City look to retain their top-flight crown.

Roberto Mancini’s side have made a sluggish yet unbeaten start to the defence of their title, overcoming Queens Park Rangers and Southampton, while drawing 2-2 at Liverpool.

The City captain is expecting the Citizens to face a sterner challenge to finish first this season, with the Belgium defender impressed by their rivals’ summer signings.

“I think this season will be a lot more competitive than last year – just look at the talent that has come into the Premier League during the summer,” Kompany told City’s website.

“I don’t think any sides around us are weaker – they have all strengthened so getting victories at this stage of the season is the most important thing.”

He added: “We have seven points out of nine and have won the Community Shield against Chelsea so things haven’t started too badly.

“We have had some really good periods in games, but there are areas we need to work a bit harder on. We’re not dismantling teams at present like we were at this stage last season.

“Everything was flying in this time last season so we were effectively winning games earlier and making things easier for ourselves.

“We generally give very few chances away, but when we have so far in the opening weeks, we’ve been unlucky because teams have punished us, though I think we have defended well overall.

Kompany is encouraged that City are still winning games despite under-performing – and the 26-year-old insists the best is yet to come from the Eastlands outfit.

“If you look at the games in December, January and February, that’s the time when we’ve carried the team in the past and I’m sure we will do the same again if we have to,” he added.

“So I’m happy with things so far. If I had one message for the team, it would be ‘Well done guys, we’ve always battled hard and shown how strong we are as a team and proved we have plenty of character’.

“If we can win games when we are supposedly not at our best, what will happen we did hit top form? If that really is the case, then the best is yet to come.”

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