James Milner: 'Manchester City need to be more boring'

James Milner has claimed that Manchester City need to have more "boring" games as they target the Premier League title this season.

City surrendered a 2-0 lead to Fulham on Saturday before securing a 4-2 victory, and Milner believes that Manuel Pellegrini's side must do a better job of closing out games.

"We'd like to have games that are a bit more boring if we can - maybe a 1-0 or 2-0," the England midfielder told reporters. "When you are 2-0 up you like to see out the job but it would have been a big blow if we hadn't won, going into Christmas with a lot of big games coming up.

"You can't get anywhere in football without scoring goals but, as a side that's looking to improve, we can improve at the other end, as a team.

"Hopefully we can get a few more clean sheets, which will be more important as the season goes on."

Premier League leaders Liverpool travel to the Etihad Stadium to face City on Boxing Day.