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Manchester City midfield duo Rodri and Bernardo Silva are both on the same page when it comes to their most difficult opponent in the Premier League: Liverpool and Mohamed Salah.
Over the years, Liverpool and Manchester City have gone head-to-head for the Premier League title several times. In the last three seasons, Arsenal has also emerged as a contender — though Rodri and Silva see the Reds as a greater threat.
Speaking to Telemundo Deportes, Rodri was asked to name his toughest opponent since arriving in the Premier League, both domestically and in the Champions League. And the Spaniard was in no doubt.
"I would say here in the Premier League. I would say Salah, in his prime," Rodri said. Meanwhile, Bernardo Silva gave a very similar answer too, going with the Egyptian, who was signed from AS Roma for around $46 million (£34 million) in 2017.
"Liverpool, Salah, and Real Madrid with Vinicius and Rodrygo," the Portugal midfielder said. "In the Champions League, it’s Madrid and in the Premier League, it’s Liverpool."
Manchester City is already six points behind Liverpool after it lost against Tottenham and then Brighton. This weekend, Pep Guardiola's side will take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Liverpool, meanwhile, is set to host Everton at Anfield. And Arne Slot is hoping to see an improvement in performance level despite his team winning again midweek against Atletico Madrid.
"I think one of the things you need to have if you want to compete for the Premier League and the cups and the Champions League is mentality and fitness," Slot said.
"But you also need quality and I think that’s also what we saw tonight. Maybe I am even a bit disappointed that we scored in the last minute — I know that’s going to be your headline and it’s going to be great to score a late game winner.
"But I would have liked it more if we would have spoken about, ‘Did you see the few attacks we had before half-time when Florian [Wirtz] and Alex combined together, which led to almost Jeremie [Frimpong] scoring, or second half a great attack with Dominik and Flo and Mo that ended up on the post.’
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"I can come up with so many great attacks we had today but probably no one is talking about that. Everybody will probably talk again about the late game winner, which I understand because that is the story of this game and the story of the last five games.
"But for me it was a different game than the ones we have played before. So I saw many good things but it is not for the first time that we give away a 2-0 lead as well, which was different to the one we gave away against Bournemouth because this one had nothing to do with counter-attacks.
"But we did give away a 2-0 lead, which is not what we were known for last season. So yes, there is a lot to improve but there is a lot to like as well."
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