Pep Guardiola sends title message to Mikel Arteta after winning at Liverpool

Manchester City staged a dramatic comeback against Liverpool at Anfield to keep the team's Premier League title hopes alive, with Pep Guardiola vowing to capitalize on any Arsenal slip-ups as Arne Slot criticized refereeing decisions

Pep Guardiola is chasing another Premier League title(Image: Getty Images)

Erling Haaland led an extraordinary Manchester City comeback as Pep Guardiola maintained that his players are poised to capitalize on any Arsenal mistake.

City manager Guardiola watched his side recover from 1-0 down to orchestrate a dramatic late turnaround as Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai received his marching orders in a tense conclusion at Anfield. The result kept City within six points of Arsenal in first, and Guardiola insists his team's resilience demonstrates the title contest remains far from decided.

Guardiola said: "That's why all we can do is breathe down the neck of Arsenal, being there, and try if they slip, if they make something (a mistake), use it.

"It is so difficult, Anfield is Anfield, the tradition, the history and the crowd. It always looks smaller, tighter here, and the pitch doesn't look like Etihad Stadium. And the players that they have and everything.

"Of course would be disappointed and all the questions would be whether the title is over, but six points is better than nine. It is still a lot considering how strong Arsenal are in all departments. It is better to have. I said the same, 13 games is a lot in the Premier League."

City midfielder Bernardo Silva even claimed his team's title challenge would have been over i

Manchester City won at Anfield on Sunday(Image: Getty Images)

f they had lost and fallen nine points behind Arsenal. He said: "The whole team knew before the game the title race is over if we lost this game. We felt we needed to win the game, and this puts us closer.

"The hope is there, and we will fight to the end. We need to keep doing our job, as we didn't do it at the start of the year."

Liverpool manager Arne Slot expressed frustration over the Szoboszlai dismissal and also argued City defender Marc Guehi ought to have been shown a red card for hauling back Mohamed Salah.

Slot listed a series of decisions that he believed had gone against Liverpool. City midfielder Rodri was critical of refereeing decisions last week, but they benefited from major calls this time around.

Slot said: "When you ask me about what decision, I thought what do you mean, the disallowed goal at City, the penalty they got in the away game against us, the clear red card on Mo Salah in the second half here, or the penalty they got in the second half, or do you mean this (Szoboszlai red card) decision?

"That's only over two games, and the ones that follow Liverpool know how many decisions I can come up with in all the other games as well, all the big decisions that could have gone in some situation to a 50-50.

"Second half, we pressed really high and played good football. You cannot compare this game with three or four months ago, we have improved so much - but we need to improve the results.

"So many times this year we haven't got what I think we deserve and this is another time."