City and Kompany keeping their cool

Vincent Kompany has denied Manchester City are suffering from nerves following their 3-3 draw against Sunderland at Etihad Stadium.

Sunderland looked to be on track for victory thanks to Nicklas Bendtner’s goal and a Sebastian Larsson double in the English Premier League match on Saturday.

Mario Balotelli’s double and a late Aleksandar Kolarov strike rescued a point for Roberto Mancini’s men, but they remain two points behind league leaders Manchester United.

The defending champions can go five points clear with victory at Blackburn on Monday, and club captain Kompany has had to reject suggestions his team’s poor performance was caused by pressure.

“I can guarantee you it’s nothing to do with nerves,” he told Sky Sports.

“There’s a lot of players that have been in this situation before, whether it was at this club or other clubs in other leagues.

“Today is not a problem.

“I think today was an off day at the worst of times and ultimately the fans will be very disappointed, but the next couple of days it will be important to start getting the feeling back in team that we can still do it.”

City’s next match is a tough assignment away to Arsenal on April 8.