Erling Haaland shrugged off missing an early penalty to head in his 99th Premier League goal before Nico Gonzalez’s deflected effort and a wonder strike from Jeremy Doku confirmed City’s status as Arsenal’s major title rivals.
Liverpool have now lost five of their last six league games to leave the defending champions down in eighth, eight points off the top.
Arsenal’s 10-game winning run came to an end in a 2-2 draw at Sunderland on Saturday and Guardiola’s men took full advantage in the battle of the two sides that have dominated the Premier League over the past decade.
“Thank you to the players and staff for giving me that incredible present,” said Guardiola on marking his 1,000th game in style.
“I said to the players ‘guys, don’t do it because yesterday Arsenal didn’t win. Let’s do it to believe ourselves’.
“We play against the champions of England. Show them that we are able to be there with them (Arsenal) this season and today I think we proved it.”
Even if decisions went against Arne Slot’s men, this was another show of how far they have fallen since cruising to a 2-0 win at the Etihad in February.
The Reds showed signs of a revival in beating Aston Villa and Real Madrid in the past eight days, but had no answer to the slickness of a rejuvenated City, who have won 11 of their last 14 games in all competitions.
“We need to improve and that’s obvious,” said Slot. “The first focus is getting results. The last thing we should focus on right now is the title race.” (AFP)
