Kevin de Bruyne determined to shut out the noise as Manchester City set their sights on history

No excuses, no distractions, no complaints. Kevin de Bruyne is determined, as City start to stride into the serious half of the season, not to let anything get in their way.

City have won nothing yet, but they have their first final next month, sit 12 points clear in the Premier League, and are in the FA Cup and Champions League too. They are heading for a historic season and De Bruyne, their most important player, wants to ignore all external pressure, all extra noise, just to relax, reflect, and focus on winning the next game. For the best player in the country, nothing else matters.

The only stumble of City’s season came 10 days ago at Anfield when they conceded three goals in nine mad minutes and ended up losing 4-3 to Liverpool, ending their long unbeaten run. That could have disrupted them, but since then they have recovered their balance: beating Newcastle United 3-1 at home and then Bristol City 3-2 away, an easier win that looks, sending them to the Wembley final.

That bad afternoon at Anfield has been left behind and brushed off with a minimum of fuss. “I don’t think we played that bad,” reflected De Bruyne on Tuesday night at Ashton Gate. “We had a 10-minute blip where we made a few mistakes, it happens. It’s not like we lost to a League Two team, it was Liverpool, at Anfield. You just go on with what you need to do, and that’s what we have done in the next games.”

Last week Manchester City also missed out on the signing of Alexis Sanchez. They had bid £60m for the player last August, but this month they thought he was too expensive so allowed him to join United instead. It could be a distraction, but De Bruyne was very clear: City’s squad is more than good enough even without the explosive little Chilean.

“If it goes, it goes,” De Bruyne shrugged. “If it doesn't go, it doesn't matter, we will still do what we need to do, with or without him. There are a lot of good players. And if they want to come, they want to come. Otherwise we will do it with our team.” De Bruyne knows City have some pretty good players themselves.

So the only question for City is whether they can maintain their high level of passing and pressing football over the next few months, in their pursuit of the four trophies in front of them. De Bruyne is playing as well as ever: after one assist for Sergio Aguero against Newcastle, he produced another on Tuesday as well as the winning goal with the last kick of the game. He has started 31 games this season now, and while he admits tiredness is creeping in, he feels he can cope.

“As a footballer in these type of games in the middle of the season, you never feel 100%,” he admitted. “I don't know anybody who would say 'I feel great'. You always feel a little bit tired, some games are better than others. I think you need to manage yourself as a player, and if you’re tired, you need to tell them. For the moment we are managing really well.”

De Bruyne has had more work to do in the absence of David Silva, who has been back in Spain recently to attend to his prematurely-born son. But De Bruyne has broad shoulders. “Obviously it’s been a difficult situation in midfield, with David and his situation,” he said. “I know also after time he will come back and he will play maybe a little bit more, and we will get a rest. So we need to do it for him also. If he needs to go back to Spain, that's the way it is."

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All De Bruyne wants to do is keep playing his game and shut out everything else. Even his own good news this week, a big new contract, is not on his mind. “That’s yesterday,” he says, when it is brought up. “In the end, it doesn’t change anything. I am just staying for longer.”

The only thing that matters, for De Bruyne and for the team that he leads, is winning games and trophies. The EFL Cup would be the first one of the Guardiola era, which De Bruyne hopes would be the springboard to more. “It helps you, it motivates you. The season is very hard, but if you win already that trophy you already have something.”

But De Bruyne is not looking that far ahead. Of course City want to win every game, but that does not mean they are targeting the quadruple, when they have Cardiff City away to worry about first. “We are not thinking about it,” he sadi. “Obviously we want to try it, because we want to win every game. But to win all four, it's a hard task. It's not like we're thinking ahead like we want to win all four. The game that's coming, you want to win it.”