Yaya Toure has insisted he has ignored his critics during his tough start to the season.
The Manchester City midfielder has come under fire for his form and has seen his attitude questioned in the early months of the campaign.
That followed a summer where his future at the Etihad Stadium was brought into doubt after his agent, Dimitri Seluk, claimed the Premier League champions had shown the Ivorian a lack of respect by failing to celebrate his birthday.
But after only scoring one league goal, the 31-year-old has managed two in as many games, with a winner against Swansea followed by the opener in Sunday's 3-0 victory at Southampton.
And Toure said he has tried not to pay attention to outsiders' comments, telling reporters: "For me the most important thing is that I always try to do my best for the team. People always try to criticise you, but for me, I don't think about those things. I only focus on my team."
City have won their last two league games as they have moved up to second place and closed the gap on leaders Chelsea to six points.
And Toure added: "I know the Premier League is very, very tough and all the time we were losing, I knew we were going to get criticised. But for me, the most important thing is that we fight until the end because our squad is fantastic and we know how to fight.
"We won't give up, we don't want Chelsea to get further away because we need to close the gap on them."
City go to the Stadium of Light, where they have a poor record, on Wednesday with Toure believing that Sunderland's 0-0 draw with Chelsea at the weekend proves it will be a tough match.
He explained: "They are a good team. We saw that against Chelsea. They are very compact, they defend very well and they have good play on the counter-attack.
"We know it's going to be a battle, but we need to continue like we played against Southampton because winning three or four games in a row is good for your confidence."