Pep Guardiola makes huge Man City statement after thrashing Liverpool without Haaland | Football | Sport

Pep Guardiola hailed Manchester City’s 4-1 thrashing of Liverpool as the “best performance in my seven years” but refused to single out any individuals after the statement win at the Etihad Stadium. Julian Alvarez, Jack Grealish, Ilkay Gundogan and Kevin de Bruyne all got on the scoresheet, but Guardiola was keen to focus on the overall team performance as his side closed the gap to five points on Arsenal in the Premier League title race.

City were without 28-goal top scorer Erling Haaland and winger Phil Foden for the clash at the Etihad Stadium, but Guardiola’s men stepped up to plate to deliver a devastating second-half performance against struggling Liverpool. De Bruyne scored 53 seconds into the second half before Gundogan made it 3-1 seven minutes later, and Grealish added a fourth late on to complete the rout.

In particular, Alvarez – drafted in to replace Haaland in the frontline – caused the visitors a host of problems and ended up with a goal and an assist for his efforts.

Grealish also proved to be difficult to handle on the left with his twisting runs and finished off the rout with the fourth goal, having set up the Argentine earlier in the match.

Guardiola was beaming after the final whistle after hailing his side’s performance as the best of his seven-year reign at the Etihad, but stopped short of crediting individuals – despite the magnificent displays from Alvarez and Grealish.

He told BT Sport: “From the first minute until the 93rd minute, it was almost the perfect performance. Even 0-1 down, we were playing well and Jack [Grealish] made a good save to stop a potential 0-2. We play really, really good and this is one of the best performances we had in seven years.

“The players know we are not playing bad and we go 1-0 down, we continue to do it. We discuss at half-time our process and of course, we are unlucky to score the second goal. At 1-1 and 2-1, the game was so still over the 90 minutes.

“Jack, he saved the 2-0, whether it was 0-0 or 1-0 at that moment. The free-kick was a big transition and Jack help us, but with the ball, Riyadh was exceptional too. I cannot name one better than another one, all of them were exceptional.”