Pep Guardiola reveals what he told Man City players after Arsenal's draw vs Sunderland

Pep Guardiola’s Man City moved to within four points of Arsenal after a 3-0 win over Liverpool (Picture: Getty)

Pep Guardiola urged his Man City players to forget about Arsenal slipping up against Sunderland and lay down a marker by beating reigning champions Liverpool .

Goals from Erling Haaland , Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku saw City’s players answer their manager’s call in emphatic style in what was the 1,000th game of his coaching career.

The Gunners’ winning streak came to an end at the Stadium of Light on Saturday evening when Bryan Brobbey’s acrobatic injury time effort secured an unlikely point for this season’s surprise packages.

City knew that a victory against a Liverpool side buoyed by-back-to-back wins would pull them to within four points of the leaders, but Guardiola insisted proving they could go toe-to-toe with Arne Slot ’s men was more important than the size of any gap at the top.

Speaking in in his post match press conference, Guardiola said: ‘I’m pretty sure when Arsenal was equalised at the end from Sunderland, and it can happen because I’m not surprised, beyond surprised by what Sunderland is doing and the way they are doing it, I think Liverpool and myself are thinking ‘oh wow, they dropped points finally and concede two goals.

‘In that moment, in this run it looked like it wouldn’t happen.

‘At the end we have to do it and I said to the players don’t do it today because Arsenal didn’t win, you have to do it to believe in yourselves.

@metrosportuk Pep’s 1000th game was PERFECT 👏 Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-0 to move four points behind Premier League table-toppers Arsenal, as Jérémy Doku has a worldie of a performance, and the Reds’ defence cost themselves the match. #metroatthematch #mancity #liverpool #premierleague #doku ♬ original sound – Metro Sport – Metro Sport

Jeremy Doku produced a man of the match performance (Picture: Getty)

Nico O’Relly could make his England debut next week (Picture: Getty)

‘We are playing against the champions in England. We have to show them that we are able to be there with them all of this season.

‘Today I think we showed this, especially in the first half.’

On being able to celebrate such a significant landmark in his career, Guardiola added: “My players gave me a good present with this performance against the champions.

‘We had to perform good and many good things happened, they all performed to the highest level.

‘Defensively it was really good. We know their threat in behind with Mo [Salah] and the quality of [Dominik] Szoboszlai and [Florian] Wirtz and we have incredible energy with our people. Playing at home and winning is good for the international break.