Pep Guardiola urged his Man City players to forget about Arsenal slipping up against Sunderland and lay down a marker by beating reigning champions Liverpool.
Goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku saw City’s players answer their manager’s call in emphatic style in what was the 1,000th game of his coaching career.
The Gunners’ winning streak came to an end at the Stadium of Light on Saturday evening when Bryan Brobbey’s acrobatic injury time effort secured an unlikely point for this season’s surprise packages.
City knew that a victory against a Liverpool side buoyed by-back-to-back wins would pull them to within four points of the leaders, but Guardiola insisted proving they could go toe-to-toe with Arne Slot’s men was more important than the size of any gap at the top.
Speaking in in his post match press conference, Guardiola said: ‘I’m pretty sure when Arsenal was equalised at the end from Sunderland, and it can happen because I’m not surprised, beyond surprised by what Sunderland is doing and the way they are doing it, I think Liverpool and myself are thinking ‘oh wow, they dropped points finally and concede two goals.
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‘In that moment, in this run it looked like it wouldn’t happen.
‘At the end we have to do it and I said to the players don’t do it today because Arsenal didn’t win, you have to do it to believe in yourselves.
Metro @ The Match: Wirtz ghosts again
Analysis from Metro‘s Head of Sport James Goldman after Man City’s 3-0 victory over Liverpool…
Watch out Arsenal
Any suggestion that Mikel Arteta’s previously relentless winning machine would sleepwalk their way to the title was always fanciful prior to this weekend. It is pure folly now after a couple of familiar failings reared their head at the Stadium of Light on Sunday, before City laid down an emphatic marker against Liverpool. City have hunted down the Gunners from less promising positions in the past and although the personnel might be different, Arsenal’s failure to go course and distance in the past is likely to haunt them until they finally get over the line. Nothing about City’s recent form suggests they’re going to give them an easy ride.
City’s wing wizads are eclectic
While they’ve still got to go some to emulate some of their illustrious predecessors, there’s definitely shades of Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling about the current City widemen. Jeremy Doku gave Conor Bradley an infinitesimally more testing time than Vinicius Jnr in midweek and his electric dribbling style now, more frequently than not, culminates in end product. On the opposite flank, Rayan Cherki’s magnetic first touch and inventiveness neatly complimented the qualities of those around him before he was withdrawn early in the second period.
Nico O’Reilly ready to seize England chance
England’s left-back position is certainly up for grabs given the number of options Thomas Tuchel has experimented with over the course of his tenure. Myles Lewis-Skelly’s relative inactivity for Arsenal has handed an opportunity to Nico O’Reilly and it’s one the City youngster looks primed to take. Tasked with taming Mohamed Salah, the 20-year-old hardly gave Liverpool’s talisman an inch and his poise on the ball, a pre-requisite for any City player in Pep Guardiola’s system, helped his side navigate its way out of several tight spots and spring dangerous attacks.
Florian Wirtz goes missing again
Doku’s improvement this season and man of the match display served as a timely remind that it is still way too soon to write off one of Liverpool’s two headline summer signings, but this was another concerning performance. So infrequent was his involvement in the game that it was difficult to determine the role he had been assigned. Either way, he looks ill at ease with the playmaking responsibilities he has presumably been charged with, no matter which combination of midfielders and forwards Arne Slot selects. Lightweight, indecisive and short on confidence, Wirtz and his manager have major issues to solve.
‘We are playing against the champions in England. We have to show them that we are able to be there with them all of this season.
‘Today I think we showed this, especially in the first half.’
On being able to celebrate such a significant landmark in his career, Guardiola added: “My players gave me a good present with this performance against the champions.
‘We had to perform good and many good things happened, they all performed to the highest level.
‘Defensively it was really good. We know their threat in behind with Mo [Salah] and the quality of [Dominik] Szoboszlai and [Florian] Wirtz and we have incredible energy with our people. Playing at home and winning is good for the international break.
‘Gigi [Donnarumma] made the saves he should. Both the full-backs were outstanding. The midfielders gave us a lot of passes and control. Of course the threat of Jeremy [Doku] was outstanding alongside Erling [Haaland].
‘I will go home with my kids who came for the game. I will go home for a few days, stay with my family.’