Town midfielder Ross Barkley in a positive mood ahead of Luton's final five fixtures

​Midfielder Ross Barkley insists the Hatters can take a number of positives from their 5-1 defeat against a side he labelled as the ‘best in the world' in Manchester City when looking to stay in the Premier League this season.

Town begin their five game mini-season at the weekend with a home game against Brentford, as they also welcome Everton and Fulham to Kenilworth Road, with trips to Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United deciding just where they will be plying their trade next term.

Barkley knows what his side need to do to stay up and believes they showed they are capable of achieving safety even when beaten heavily at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday, saying: “We need to win as many games possible and stay positive. Five-one against the champions from last season, world champions, but we can take positives going forward.

"We gave everything as we do every game, we’re a great team that never gives up, but we came up against in my eyes, the best team in the world. We tried our best, unfortunately the result wasn’t in favour of us, but we’ve got big games coming up so we’re positive for those ones. There’s five games remaining, all winnable, so we’ve got to have the right mindset and we’re all looking forward to it.”

Despite conceding inside 90 seconds through a dreadfully unlucky Daiki Hashioka own goal, the Japanese international diverting Erling Haaland’s wayward shot into the net, Town then kept out Pep Guardiola’s treble winners for an hour. City’s extra class paid off in the end, as they scored four more times in the final 25 minutes to hand Luton their worst defeat of the season, but Barkley, who bagged Town's goal with a lovely body swerve and finish in the closing stages, felt there were good signs for the visitors.

He added: “An hour against the best team in the world without conceding. We conceded the one goal early on, but other than that, we were solid and we frustrated them at times. A lot of the time we go man to man in our set up, (Matheus) Nunes had a loose touch and I was quick with my movement and it was nice to get a goal as well.

"Later on in the game when things have opened up, some substitutes are coming on and tiredness kicks in, we gave them some chances. They’re a top side so they do create clear chances, but there’s positives to take from it. We created good chances ourselves and we’re looking forward to the rest of the games now.”