Manchester City must maintain their intensity after Tuesday's Champions League win over Barcelona, defender Nicolas Otamendi has warned.
City can head into the international break on top of the Premier League if they beat newly promoted Middlesbrough at the Etihad on Saturday.
Aitor Karanaka's side have been beaten only once away from the Riverside this season and claimed a goalless draw against City's title rivals Arsenal in their last game on their travels.
City failed to win the past two Premier League games at the Etihad and Otamendi says they need to be at their best again to pick up an important three points.
"This Premier League is the kind of competition that you can't relax in. Any team, any rival can beat you," Otamendi said.
"That's the beautiful thing about the Premier League. It's a very demanding competition and we need to focus 100 percent. If we do that tomorrow we'll have many chances to win the match.
"Middlesbrough are a team that are playing really well with the ball. They haven't scored from all the chances they've created in their first few games but we need to respect them.
"Our mentality, though, is to think about our game, about us, if we play like we usually do then we have chances to win."
Otamendi says that City can take a lot of confidence from the victory over the La Liga champions, particularly after a run of six games without a win earlier in the month.
The Argentine defender also took added enjoyment from the result as he had faced Barca four times before -- with City and previous clubs Porto and Valencia -- and been beaten by the Catalan club on each occasion.
"Good results always affect the mood within the squad," Otamendi added. "It was an important match for us and it was essential for us to win.
"The fact we won is going to help us a lot in the next few games, especially against Middlesbrough.
"Barcelona are the kind of team that you always want to beat. I've never been able to beat them in the past so obviously you always enjoy beating such a good team as Barcelona.
"It gives you a boost as a player and as a team to beat them but that's not going to be worth it if we don't get good results in our next Champions League matches.
"For us it was important to win. It's always positive to beat a team like Barca but form can change all the time. For us it was a big step but we now have to keep this level."