Any side that thinks Manchester City are a soft touch will be in for a shock this season, says Raheem Sterling.
City came through a testing seven days last week with battling wins away to Crystal Palace and Burnley as well as securing a place in the Champions League knockout stages with a draw at Borussia Monchengladbach.
Sterling knows that City can't always play beautiful football and says that City aren't scared to scrap for three points if they have to.
"Most of the teams that cause problems by playing more direct with long balls etc. probably think we don't fancy it but we want to win the league so we're up for a fight," Sterling said ahead of Saturday's clash with Premier League leaders Chelsea.
"We're together as a whole and we know we can grind out a result. That's the most important thing.
"You're not going to win every game 4-0, 5-0. There's going to be games when you only win 1-0, 2-0 and games when you have to fight to get a goal in the last few minutes so it's a credit to the team that we stuck in there to get the win at Burnley and put us in a position where when we play Chelsea we could go above them."
City face a big month with matches against title rivals Arsenal and Liverpool to come and Sterling is determined to kick off December with all three points against Chelsea.
"If you want to be up there at the end of the season fighting for the title then you have to be competing in games like this," he added.
"These are the games that you have to be winning because the more you beat your nearest rivals then the more you extend the gap between you and them. Games like this are massive.
"If we can get the win against them then it's good ahead of a busy schedule at Christmas. We've got big teams coming, Arsenal, Leicester and so it will be a big boost going into those games knowing we got three points. Then we have to try and work to beat the others."
Chelsea have moved a point clear at the top of the Premier League after a run of seven successive victories and Sterling has been impressed by Antonio Conte's side.
"They're solid at the back and in the attacking areas they have great players who can win a game." he added.
"We just need to play our football. We know how we can play and how we have been playing throughout the season. We just need to buy in to the manager's tactics and go out there and fight.
"They're a really good team defensively who will try to do anything they can to keep us at bay and both teams will probably be trying to do that.
"Hopefully we can be the more clinical team on the day and take our chances. We will get chances and as will they but we have to be more clinical on the day."