Kasper Schmeichel was delighted to keep another clean sheet in Manchester City's 1-0 defeat of Aston Villa on Sunday.

He told City's website: "It was a very hard game and pretty much what we expected.

"We had some good spells in the game and Michael Johnson popped up and did his thing."

With the three points taking City to within one of league leaders Arsenal, Schmeichel confirmed: "It's brilliant.

"Everything's there for us to kick on and we just need to keep our heads, keep concentrating and prepare our game, without focusing too much on league positions. We just need to knuckle down now."

The keeper added: "I thought we did really well. That must have been the youngest back four in the Premier League ever with the oldest player being 22.

"So considering that we've done really well. Dunnie's a massive player for us he's our captain and we'll always miss him when he doesn't play."