One of the best performances in 7 years at City, says Pep Guardiola after 4-1 win over Liverpool

LONDON – Pep Guardiola called it “one of the best performances” of his seven years in charge of Manchester City as they coped without the injured Erling Haaland to thrash Liverpool 4-1 on Saturday, keeping the Premier League title race alive.

Goals from Julian Alvarez, Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish at the Etihad moved the defending champions to within five points of Arsenal at the top of the table, before the Gunners restored their eight-point cushion by beating Leeds 4-1 in a later match.

City and Liverpool have finished as the top two in four of the past five Premier League seasons, but the Reds are struggling just to qualify for the Champions League after a dreadful campaign and were given another lesson in the gap they have to bridge to be back challenging next season.

A chastening defeat leaves Jurgen Klopp’s men still seven points adrift of the top four.

“Minute one to minute 93 was a perfect performance and, even though we conceded a goal, we played really well,” Guardiola said on BT Sport.

“Liverpool always have threat on transition but we played really good. One of the best performances in my seven years.

“One goal down and we continued to do it and had just a bit of chat at half-time and were lucky to score the second goal. And then at 2-1, the game was stable.”

A groin injury meant Haaland was watching on from the stands alongside his father and former City midfielder Alfie.

Despite the absence of their 42-goal striker, City made a positive start as Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker was forced into saves from Gundogan and Rodri before Riyad Mahrez fired a free kick inches wide.

But they were caught out on the counter-attack as Liverpool went in front on 17 minutes.

The home fans were screaming for offside as Diogo Jota broke in behind the City defence before teeing up Mohamed Salah to slot home his 23rd goal of the season.

A VAR (video assistant referee) review showed Manuel Akanji had played the Portuguese forward onside.

However, Guardiola did not have to wait long for his side to show their quality again.

De Bruyne, Mahrez and Grealish combined to open up the Liverpool defence and Alvarez was left with the simple task of slotting in his 13th goal of the season despite spending most of the campaign as Haaland’s deputy.

It took just 53 seconds of the second half for City to edge in front, thanks to another scintillating team move.

Alvarez was the creator this time as his cross-field pass freed Mahrez, whose cross was perfectly weighted for de Bruyne to tap into an unguarded net.

If City’s first two goals were the fruit of collective brilliance, Liverpool’s defending for the third summed up a miserable season for Klopp’s men.

Alvarez was afforded an incredible amount of time inside the box by Fabinho to pick out a shot and, when his effort was blocked by Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gundogan also had the space to take a touch before firing into the top corner.

Liverpool have now conceded three or more goals in nine games this season and the punishment did not end there for the visitors.

Grealish rounded off arguably his best performance as a City player with the fourth goal, exchanging a one-two with de Bruyne before side-footing into the far corner.

Klopp was downbeat after the loss, saying on BT Sport: “We saw a first half against a dominant City side when we were well organised... We scored a wonderful goal.

“At 1-1 at half-time, it’s clear we have to defend, they had a massive overload and we don’t even challenge, these things cannot happen but they happened.

“After that, they could do what they want, we were lucky they were not in the most greedy mood...” AFP