Manchester City striker Wilfried Bony has rubbished claims that the midweek defeat to Liverpool was due to their weekend exertions in the Capital One Cup final.

City suffered a disappointing 3-0 defeat at the hands of Liverpool on Wednesday night and following the game, Manuel Pellegrini blamed fatigue for his side's terrible display in the wake of their Champions League triumph at Dynamo Kiev last week as well as Sunday's League Cup triumph over the Reds.

However, Bony does not agree with his manager's assessment of the game and believes that City's loss had nothing to do with fitness.

The Ivorian said: "Sunday's game didn't take anything out of us, we just didn't start well and couldn't find our game, and that made things more difficult for us.

"We lost because we didn't start well in the game. They were pressing high and we didn't create chances. They made better chances than us and scored them, and then controlled the game."