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Pep Guardiola expressed his gratitude to his Manchester City squad following their commanding win over Liverpool, which marked his 1000th match as a manager.
The Reds suffered a dreadful 3-0 defeat at the Etihad on Sunday afternoon, a result that has virtually extinguished their hopes of retaining the Premier League crown. Despite Erling Haaland missing a penalty, the Norwegian striker proceeded to break the deadlock before a deflected effort from Nico Gonzalez made it 2-0.
A clinical finish by Jeremy Doku condemned Arne Slot's men to their fifth loss in six league encounters, and with Liverpool now languishing in eighth position, Manchester City has closed the gap to just four points behind pacesetters Arsenal.
"Thank you to the players for this gift, against the most important opponents we have faced in my 10 years by far," Guardiola remarked post-match.
"To see players like (Andy) Robertson and (Mohamed) Salah in so many battles, hopefully there will be more and more.
"We press high to regain the ball quick and I like to see my team do short passes and have the ability to run. The first half was really, really good offensively and defensively.
"Second half, we talk about the duels and everybody in our mindset is we have to win the duels. We spoke a lot about the duels in the last few days.
"In the start of the second half, we lost some duels and the game became more difficult for the players in the middle. But the back four and Nico (Gonzalez) were outstanding.
"It had the feeling we were back in many ways. I didn't like the second half, really not like in the first half. But we have to grow as a team. It was important win; we are second in the table."
Guardiola, now assisted by Jurgen Klopp's former number two at Liverpool, Pep Lijnders, highlighted the performances of both Doku and left-back Nico O'Reilly, who was up against Mohamed Salah.
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"Salah has been a nightmare for many years and Nico said he had to be aggressive with him," he said. "It helped that whenever Mo had the ball we had three or four players around him.
"You will never have a better test as a full-back than to face Salah. Defensively, we were really good, especially in the first half.
"Conor (Bradley) the right-back I was really, really impressed with, Pep Lijnders said he could do everything.
"I know the game against Real Madrid, how good he was against Vinicius. And Jeremy handled it, aggressive with and without the ball. He played an outstanding game."
Liverpool.com says: While the Reds did not play well, they were also unlucky. The Virgil van Dijk goal should have stood and that could have changed the game, but Liverpool can't use that as an excuse. Easier games are coming down the line.
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