Charging Liverpool Challenge Man City To Prove Their Greatness

"I start to read and then I start to think 'Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp' and I cannot focus," said Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola last month, admitting Liverpool's charge to depose the Premier League champions has been in his head for some time

Manchester, United Kingdom, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 2nd Jan, 2019 ) :"I start to read and then I start to think 'Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp' and I cannot focus," said Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola last month, admitting Liverpool's charge to depose the Premier League champions has been in his head for some time.

But in their very first game of 2019, City already find themselves in must-win territory to haul Liverpool back into view by inflicting the leaders' first defeat of the season and cutting a seven-point lead to four at the Etihad on Thursday.

"With the position of Liverpool, if we drop points then it is over, it is finished; it would be almost impossible," said Guardiola after Sunday's 3-1 win at Southampton.

Guardiola's obsession with Liverpool and Klopp in particular is not surprising. For a serial winner, no side and no manager has caused the Catalan as many problems as the German.

City have won just one of seven meetings since Guardiola joined Klopp in England after locking horns in charge of Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund.

A shock run of three defeats in four Premier League games in December has left City playing catch up to a Liverpool side eyeing history by ending a 29-year wait to win the league.

But even when seemingly no one else could stop City as they stormed to the title with a record 100 points last season, Klopp's men were a constant menace.