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.