Pep Guardiola urged his Man City players to ignore 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 profession.
The Gunners’ winning streak got here to an end on 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 inside 4 points of the leaders, but Guardiola insisted proving they might go toe-to-toe with Arne Slot’s men was more vital than the scale of any gap at the highest.
Speaking in in his post match press conference, Guardiola said: ‘I’m pretty sure when Arsenal was equalised at the tip from Sunderland, and it could actually occur because I’m not surprised, beyond surprised by what Sunderland is doing and the best way they’re doing it, I believe Liverpool and myself are considering ‘oh wow, they dropped points finally and concede two goals.
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‘In that moment, on this run it looked prefer it wouldn’t occur.
‘At the tip we’ve got to do it and I said to the players don’t do it today because Arsenal didn’t win, you might have to do it to imagine in yourselves.
Metro @ The Match: Wirtz ghosts again
Evaluation from Metro‘s Head of Sport James Goldman after Man City’s 3-0 victory over Liverpool…
Be careful Arsenal
Any suggestion that Mikel Arteta’s previously relentless winning machine would sleepwalk their solution to the title was at all times fanciful prior to this weekend. It’s pure folly now after a few familiar failings reared their head on 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 up to now and although the personnel is likely to be different, Arsenal’s failure to go course and distance up to now is more likely to haunt them until they finally recover from the road. Nothing about City’s recent form suggests they’re going to offer them a simple ride.
City’s wing wizads are eclectic
While they’ve still got to go some to emulate a few of their illustrious predecessors, there’s definitely shades of Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling concerning 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 regularly than not, culminates in end product. On the alternative flank, Rayan Cherki’s magnetic first touch and inventiveness neatly complimented the qualities of those around him before he was withdrawn early within the second period.
Nico O’Reilly able to seize England likelihood
England’s left-back position is definitely up for grabs given the variety of options Thomas Tuchel has experimented with over the course of his tenure. Myles Lewis-Skelly’s relative inactivity for Arsenal has handed a chance to Nico O’Reilly and it’s one the City teenager 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 remains to be way too soon to write down off one in every of Liverpool’s two headline summer signings, but this was one other concerning performance. So infrequent was his involvement in the sport that it was difficult to find out the role he had been assigned. Either way, he looks sick comfortable with the playmaking responsibilities he has presumably been charged with, irrespective of which combination of midfielders and forwards Arne Slot selects. Lightweight, indecisive and short on confidence, Wirtz and his manager have major issues to resolve.
‘We’re playing against the champions in England. Now we have to point out them that we’re capable of be there with all of them of this season.
‘Today I believe we showed this, especially in the primary half.’
On with the ability to have fun such a major landmark in his profession, Guardiola added: “My players gave me an excellent present with this performance against the champions.
‘We needed to perform good and plenty of good things happened, all of them performed to the best level.
‘Defensively it was really good. We all know their threat in behind with Mo [Salah] and the standard of [Dominik] Szoboszlai and [Florian] Wirtz and we’ve got incredible energy with our people. Playing at home and winning is nice for the international break.
‘Gigi [Donnarumma] made the saves he should. Each the full-backs were outstanding. The midfielders gave us a whole lot of passes and control. In fact the specter of Jeremy [Doku] was outstanding alongside Erling [Haaland].
‘I’ll go home with my kids who got here for the sport. I’ll go home for a couple of days, stick with my family.’
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