Manchester city moved within two points of leaders Liverpool with their 3-1 victory over the Gunners at the Etihad stadium
Sergio Aguero was the star of the night for the home side as the Argentine talisman netted a hattrick. Laurent Koscielny did score one for the Gunners in the first half, but apart from that, Arsenal didn’t really look like causing many problems to Ederson on the goal. The victory took City to 59 points and 2 behind Liverpool, who take on West Ham United later on Monday. Meanwhile, Arsenal dropped down to the 6th place as Manchester United’s victory over Leicester saw them reach 48 points whereas the Gunners remained on 47.
Liverpool could extend the lead to 5 points at the top of the table if they were to win at West Ham tonight. Liverpool might be at the top but they looked very nervous against Leicester in their draw at home. They need to sort this out or this might very well come back to haunt them. Despite that, Pep Guardiola still feels that he would prefer to be in the position that Liverpool are,
“I prefer to be in Liverpool’s position rather than where we are,” he told reporters. The pressure is when you’re behind. If you lose points, it’s tougher. When you’re top with distance you can lose points and still be there.”
“Of course we have to win a lot of games,” he added. “After the Newcastle defeat everyone thought we would go seven points behind. But everyone expected Liverpool would win against Leicester.
“A lot of things are going to happen between now and the end of the season. It will be tough. But football is unpredictable. Now we are two, tomorrow it can be three, five again.
“I’m not in the mind of Jurgen and the players. Every press conference you say, ‘Put pressure on Liverpool’. I don’t know. We have to be ourselves. That’s the main target we want to achieve, and win our games.
“I cannot deny that we’d prefer West Ham beat Liverpool, of course. But Liverpool would have preferred Arsenal beat us. That is normal. But I don’t have influence on that.”
Author’s take
Liverpool have a rather young and inexperienced side, and despite what Guardiola says, it’s not going to change the fact that Liverpool are under much more pressure than City.
