The Reds visit Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon in the Premier League, just a few days after being involved in an intense 2-2 draw at Aston Villa.

And coming up against the reigning champions during this part of the schedule, Robertson knows an important victory would be achieved not just by the 11 starters chosen by Arne Slot.

The No.26, speaking after the game at Villa Park, told Liverpoolfc.com: "It's still an incredibly tough place to go.

"Certainly since I've been here, our record there isn't great from my memories, maybe we've had a couple of draws and things like that. It's always been a tough place for us.

"They've got some fantastic players. OK, they're maybe having a tough season but I think they showed last weekend against Newcastle they can still steamroll teams and things like that.

"We have to be at our best, that's the only way to do it. And if we are at our best then we believe we can cause any team problems.

"But it's going to be difficult. We need to recover, rest as much as we can because the schedule has been tough – but we'll be ready to go on Sunday.

"The whole squad has to be ready, the manager keeps on saying that, the lads on the bench have to be ready to make an impact.

"Once we get through the next two games then we've got a little break where we've not got a game at the weekend.

"We just need to keep pushing through that and if we do then let's see where we're at after that."

A midweek encounter with Newcastle United at Anfield follows for the Premier League leaders, before that rare aforementioned free weekend.

Robertson continued: "You always go through little periods of the season where probably the fans look at the fixtures and go, 'That's tasty.' The players do as well.

"We just have to go game by game, we can't look too far ahead or anything like that. So, our full focus now is on Man City.

"But it's been a testing period of time, of course it has – games getting rescheduled, games getting put in and things like that.

"Look, there's been tough games but we have to play everyone twice anyway and winning the Premier League is never easy – we know that because we've only managed to win it once and other times we've been close and things like that.

"We're not really thinking like that just now. We just need to get through this period and then be refreshed.

"I think [Villa] was a great game for the neutral – up and down, chances at both ends and things like that. I think there was an element of freshness for us, maybe we got a bit tired in the last 10 minutes but we put so much into the game.

"It will hopefully be the same on Sunday. We need the same energy, same intensity and same quality.

"If we do then hopefully we can get three points and we'll rest, recover and go again."

Robertson admitted to possessing 'mixed emotions' about leaving Villa Park with just a draw.

Liverpool went ahead on the half-hour mark through Mohamed Salah's 29th goal of the campaign, though found themselves 2-1 down at the break.

Trent Alexander-Arnold levelled proceedings in the 61st minute but the visitors were unable to go on and turn one point into three.

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The left-back assessed: "That's, I suppose, the beauty of football – you never know how important certain results are until the end of the season.

"But we definitely had chances to get our noses back in front – when it was one each in the first half, when we go to two each we had the big chance. But look, it's part and parcel of football and these lads will be in front of goal again and they'll hopefully take their chances.

"We don't know if it's a point gained, two points dropped, whatever it will be, but we have to just keep pushing.

"I think the performance levels from everyone was good enough. We fought really hard and we have to take the point and now we have to move on because the schedule is tough on us just now."

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