James Milner has insisted that his former Manchester City teammates will recover from their damaging defeat to Liverpool at the weekend.

On Saturday night, the Merseyside outfit stunned Manuel Pellegrini's team at the Etihad Stadium by earning a 4-1 triumph.

The result pushed City down from top spot to third in the Premier League table and they are now two points behind leaders Leicester City after 13 games.

Milner, who spent five years at City before signing for Liverpool on a free contract in the summer, is confident that the former English champions will find their feet again.

"They're a team of top-class players and that will hurt them," FourFourTwo quotes Milner as saying. "I spoke to one or two of them and they were disappointed.

"They were complimentary about how we played but they know they can play a lot better than that. They've a lot of big games coming up as well. I'm sure they'll bounce back."

City's next game is a Champions League clash against Juventus in Turin on Wednesday.