The 4-0 final score may have suggested otherwise but Billy Gilmour feels Norwich City can travel to Liverpool believing that they weren’t far off an upset against Manchester City.

City skipper Grant Hanley headed against the post with the score still at 0-0 against the champions at Carrow Road on Saturday but a Max Aarons error allowed Pep Guardiola’s leaders to go ahead midway through the first half.

Phil Foden then squeezed the wealthy visitors 2-0 up just three minutes after the restart and a Raheem Sterling header was followed by the England star completing his hat-trick on the rebound in the 90th minute after Angus Gunn had saved his initial penalty.

“Manchester City are one of the best teams in the world, we know that, that’s why they’re at the top and we’re near the bottom - but at the same time, we gave them a right test,” said Chelsea loanee Gilmour.

“The score doesn’t say that but at 1-0 at half-time we thought we had a chance to come back out and the early goal killed us.

“We dug in, we had some opportunities from corners and set-pieces. That’s where we thought we could get at them and they’d be most vulnerable, on counter-attacks as well.

“But we know at Anfield it will be a tough, tough test. We’ll go there with the same mindset and battle.”

After the tough day against the dominant leaders, Saturday brings that trip to the only team with a realistic chance of being able to force a title race.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are nine points adrift with a game in hand after a 1-0 victory at Burnley on Sunday sealed a fourth top-flight win on the spin.

The difficult back-to-back games follow a four-game unbeaten run for the Canaries, who know they still have home matches against survival rivals Brentford, Newcastle and Burnley still to come, as well as trips to Southampton, Leeds and Aston Villa.

“It’s so tight down the bottom, we have to do well against the teams around us, that’s when we need to be at it,” Scotland midfielder Gilmour continued.

“We need to keep picking up points, we’ve got Liverpool next and another tough test. So we’ll go into that game hoping to get three points, work hard in this full week of training and go to Anfield ready for another battle.”

NCFC EXTRA: Gilmour sure he can prove his doubters wrong at City