Pep celebrates 1000 games as Manchester City overwhelm sorry Liverpool

0:27Thanks for joining us on the Sky Sports Premier League podcast. and Peck is still winning the big ones. And he won this one big. Erling Haaland had missed a penalty by the time he established the lead with a trademark header of his. Thereafter, Van Dijk having been deprived by a debatable offside call. Gonzalez made it two. And then the delicious Doku came up with the goal of the game. He was the player of the game. and City in the end Gary what it out of canter yeah today was about which of these two teams and clubs were going to emerge as the nearest challengers and could they send the message to Arsenal and Pep Guardiola in his thousandth game and his team have done just that a really good day for him as he celebrates once he gets away from Andy Robson who gives him a hug but a difficult day for around his slot at Liverpool.

1:24But, great day for City. City have beaten Liverpool for the first time in two and a half years. They are right on Arsenal's shoulder. Eleven games in, the champions are eight points off the pace. Pep's 716th win out of a thousand. And for him, this Liverpool will always be a special one. City 3, Liverpool 0. David. Peter, Gary, thank you very much. And not many of the meetings between these two for either side have been as straightforward as it was for City this afternoon. Micah Richards, how significant do you think that is for City today? I think it's very... I think especially for the confidence.

2:04Coming into the game today, I didn't know how it was going to go. I was intrigued by it. Liverpool won't win it from the first half, better in the second half. But that moment in the screen there, Doku, was scintillating. I think he's taking his game to the next level now. In terms of his goal, the way he took it, How many times have we seen them go down blind alleys and make the wrong pass, but he's got that conviction now. I just thought City, to a man today, were all very good. They all knew the jobs, very comfortable. I thought it was going to be difficult for them in the middle of a park, starting with a photo and a shirt-keep, but it wasn't the case at all.

2:36Liverpool couldn't deal with them, and it's a really impressive performance for City. Does it send out a message to Daniel, do you think? Most definitely. I felt like they tactically outdid Liverpool today. The way they pressed was magnificent. They caused big problems for Liverpool's build-up. Then we talk about the performances of the Liverpool players. I think they were miles off what they used to be, what they used to play. If they're honest with themselves going home, they're going to know that they've not played to their level. They're going to know that they could have done a lot better tonight.

3:13I think Manchester City were absolutely magnificent in the lane of Mark and I. Would it be, it's obviously a great result for Manchester City and a special day for Pep Guardiola, Roy, but would it be worrying for Liverpool, who came into this really as fellow contenders for the title, hunting down Arsenal right now, how easy it was for City? At this moment you can't be considering Liverpool for the league title, that's five losses now. The type of goals they're giving away, people keep talking about their attacking players, but defensively they're all over the place. when the goals are giving up.

3:43This would be the feel like the worst defeat. Some of the other games they lost, it was last minute, it was tight games, but that one was a sore one. I know Gary mentioned a commentary in the second half, Liverpool were a bit better. That's because the game was over. City leased off then. But this reminded me of City of old. And some of the players now who've got 60, 70 games under the belt have been in the club even only a few months. Looks like it's coming together. And Liverpool have picked up the last few games, but that was a home. Different animal come to Man City, and City were outstanding.

4:11Do they look like genuine contenders to you, Roy? Who, City? Yeah, I think City are certainly back in the mix. I think Arsenal would have been looking at that and thinking, you know what, the signs are good for Man City. Do you agree with that, Daniel? Yeah, most definitely they look like a real good outfit again. You know, we talked about in the past, we talked about Rodri being out and that midfield area being an area that needs shoring up, and I think Nico Gonzalez, Bernardo Silva, Foden today, all three of them were magnificent. magnificent hats off to the manager for for setting his team up how he did because i felt as if that they gave liverpool problems they weren't expecting i saw you know honest like talking about the teams they've faced giving them the things they would have expected in astonville and real madrid but today i think the way peps put this team out and allowed for for daco to have areas where he can exploit the defense was was you know you just have to take your hat off to the manager and say great great job tonight he certainly looks to be rejuvenated doesn't he and his team as well five wins out of five here in front of the home fans and they're savoring every moment of this precious victory against the team that's pushed him and them all the way in these last few exciting years that then the weekend completed which saw Chelsea beat Wolves by three goals to nil late last night Wolves making progress in their pursuit of Rob Edwards to be their next manager not done yet Everton beat Fulham by two goals to nil that was an important one for them and a big result for Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, coming back in the 90-plus fourth minute to make it 2-2 against Arsenal.

5:44Full stadium game. Similar story, actually, in North London, the early game on Saturday. 2-2 between Spurs and Manchester United. A lot of flurry late on there. West Ham with a precious victory. Two out of two for Nuno Espito Santo to sink Burnley. And then a busy day today as well. Remember that if you scan that QR code, it will take you to the Sky Sports app Well, you see all of these goals, all the highlights as well from Super Sunday, which saw Aston Villa beat Bournemouth by four goals to nil. Brentford beat Newcastle 3-1. Dan Byrne sent off for Newcastle, who still haven't won away from home this season.

6:20Nothing between Crystal Palace and Brighton Palace, still unbeaten at Selhurst Park. Sean Dyche getting his first Premier League winners, Boris Boss, against Leeds United and City here, triumphing by three goals to nil over Liverpool. which leaves us looking like this at our final pause of 2025 before the international break. Arsenal clear by four points. Then come Manchester City, now hot on their heels. Then it's Chelsea and Sunderland. Spurs, Villa, Manchester United plus Liverpool in eighth and Bournemouth in ninth, all on 18 points. Only two points between third and ninth right now. And this is how it looks at the bottom with Brentford climbing into 12th with that important victory today, overtaking Everton in the process.

7:15And down at the bottom, we've got West Ham still in the bottom three. Forest moving on to nine points, but still second bottom and Wolves rock bottom for now.

7:33If you're a Sky Sports subscriber, you can watch all the live action directly from the Sky Sports app. Just head to your app store to download it to your device. Not got Sky Sports? Existing Sky customers can upgrade their package. Or if you've not got Sky, you can sign up at sky.com. Now, let's get back to the Sky Sports Premier League podcast.

8:25Salah delivers, Van Dijk scores! Except that there is a VAR check. Silva. Nico Gonzalez! Tune in! And Manchester City in a very good place. Jeremy Doku. Doku! Oh, glorious!

8:49It's a simply beautiful goal from Jeremy Doku who has glittered the afternoon long. Very special strike to Kappa, a scintillating performance, manner of match display from Jeremy Doku to Sink Liverpool today. City fans will be abuzz with talk of that as they head off into the Manchester night. after a job well done. First half in which they dominated. Liverpool better in the second, but by then it was too late. 14 shots to seven, just one on target from Liverpool today. They had more in every single game they played last season. City ahead on the expected goals, touches in the opposition box. Interesting to note as well that City behind on possession, I think the third game in a row, but still job done here by City this afternoon.

9:39Some excellent individual performances. Haaland on the score sheet again after having a penalty saved. And a landmark day for the manager Pep Guardiola. So let's hear from two of those players. Jeremy Doku, the player of the match, alongside Ruben Dias there. And here they both are with Patrick Davison. Guys, well played. Ruben on the manager's 1 ,000th game as a manager. Was that a performance worthy of the very best Pep Guardiola sides? Yeah, him, everyone. I'm obviously very happy for him. We live for games like this. And I mean, there's not a higher level than these kind of levels. So very happy for him, very happy for us and very happy for everyone because everyone did a great game.

10:22Jeremy, it was your 100th game for City as well. And I know there was that game against Bournemouth where you had the four assists. But have you ever played better than you did today? I don't know. I think in big games it's always more exposed. is always more beautiful. I'm just happy with the game and the performance today from the team from the start we prepared the game well and yeah we were directly at it so I'm very happy. But does it mean a lot to you personally to kind of dominate if that's the right word a game of this level? Yeah that's always good good for the confidence as well but I got great players around me that push me He pushes me every day because he believes in me.

11:04And that also gives me the feeling that I have to do more every game. And every day I want to improve. And having teammates like that makes it easier for me. It sounds like you're on his case a bit, Ruben. You want the best from him. Yeah, from him and from everyone. We need to push all of us. Myself, everyone. He needs to push me. I need to push him. We need to push everyone. I've seen, obviously, the game, the amazing game he did. I've seen just now in the end the sprint early there to compensate because Savinho was inside. And we live of these things. I remember still before I came to this club and from watching this club playing on TV, these were the details that make them win so much.

11:45These little differences of everyone ready to show up and ready to sacrifice for the guy next to them. And I wonder today as well if we saw a little bit of a new city taking shape. Probably you've been feeling it for a few weeks or a few months, but generally giving a player of the match performance, Nico O 'Reilly, Matez Nunes. We know what, with respect to guys like you, the kind of City legends can do, but are we seeing a new generation kind of stepping up now? I mean, this is not new. This has been going on for a while now. Obviously, we've been talking a lot about a rebuild since last season and there were many changes in the team, which is part of the process of any club and any team that wants to keep on winning.

12:24and yes of course there's maybe new faces to the one because of the ones that left but the quality stays the same and we keep on pushing and I mean it's still early in the season feet on the ground but we're going to keep on pushing yeah I think it was another record because Jeremy you were named player of the match as early as the 63rd minute when you got your goal so here it is Ruben's going to present it for us well played thank you very much thank you Yes, he went very early today, Gary Neville, and I don't think anyone in here was in any disagreement about that, were they? Well, he's a handful, and he's been consistent recently, and of course, when you have an end product like he's getting now, then you take notice of this kid.

13:03I think we all saw him over the last few years, there's always been potential, but he's not been consistent, and that's the key, if you want to be a top player or a great player, and then if you're throwing the end product in, then yeah, keep an eye on him, he's really settling to the club, no fault, maybe more belief, confidence and he was almost unplayable today. We use that word a lot, unplayable, but it does seem appropriate here this afternoon because Liverpool just couldn't get a handle on him, could they? I think when you, if you look at his style of play, he's one of the hardest players for defenders to go up against for me.

13:40I think he's so direct, can go either way. His power output I think over a short you know space maybe one yard when he when he drops the shoulder and goes you can't everyone that he plays against doesn't matter who it is he's gonna cause problems you talk about his dribbling he completes so many dribbles create so many chances and I think right now in his mind he has a plan I think sometimes players who are dribblers they don't necessarily know sometimes what they're gonna do whereas I think now he's getting himself into areas where He's like, OK, I'm going to go left here. I'm actually going to go right.

14:17He's not just playing off the cuff. So I think he's improved so much as a footballer this season. And he's going to go from strength to strength. The goal today was magnificent. And I think the only thing he needs to add maybe is more goals. Yeah. And we'll come to his goal very shortly. But he had caused Liverpool problems before the first goal, Michael, which I suppose ironically was a team goal from City. Every player in the outfield had had a touch in the build-up to this. Yeah, but something I noticed within this, So we say the way Liverpool are set up here. You see, Robertson and Van Dijk change not at the right moment, then allows the cross to come in, and then Haaland in the air.

14:54OK, you could say Canate is a little bit unlucky. But when the ball goes across, you've got your centre-half left-back, your left-back at centre-half, and they should just stay in positions now. Now you've got Wurtz in one way. He's not going to help you stopping the cross. Normally, Robertson, if he was in a position, he would be out there quicker. Could he still go, though? I know he doesn't get there quite in time, but you should still try. He should still go, but he's not set, Dave. There's a difference between going. When you're in a full-back position there, it's all about your distances.

15:22And when you feel like you're not ready to go, because if he goes, he can go round him. So he waits and maybe expects Verts to come and help him. That doesn't happen. So if you look at here, Robertson and Van Dyke, as we've just shown now, City have got overload on the right-hand side, with Nunez going really, really high. But now when the ball goes up, it's too late for him to get there. Because he's got Verts in there, a little bit of communication. You probably want your winger then to just help you out. And then you drop off a little bit. But because he switched out at the wrong moment... That's the full-back crossing the ball, though, so Verts should be out.

15:58He should be out 100%. Well, they've done the worst thing. They ended up doing nothing. Correct. Even if you've got any beat you, do something. They've ended up in no-man's land and lack that intensity and desire to stop crosses. And that goes back to that real desire. And to me, what I'm really disappointed with, Liverpool, a few years ago, five, six years ago, winning the league, the following season, they lack that intensity of what champions need because obviously people, you're up there to be, you're the target and you're the best team. And Liverpool, to me, we can show them little clips and go, yeah, he's swapping or, yeah, these things happen in the game of football.

16:33But when you do have a decision to make, at least do it with some sort of intent. When you say intensity, what do you mean? Just going out here, but then you... He's going to stop the cross. You're talking about champions and all that. Is that then just a mindset? Why would he not be going out there? Maybe it's his third game in the week and he's not played a lot all season. Maybe I was a loser. Yeah, but we can do it again. Yeah, but it's still early in the game. It's not late in the game. They were home and they only travelled down the road. Sometimes you make excuses for players travelling across Europe and the intensity of the game.

17:00They've had a home game down the road, so you want to be careful making excuses, but we'll have the same with the second goal. And people say, oh, he can be unlucky with the deflection. He does lack that intensity. I think if you're not added to the team and you're just a little bit off, at least get the basics right. You have to get the basics right, and that is stopping crosses and kind of being difficult to play against. We'll come to the second goal, Roy, in just a second. But before then, the moment, I suppose, that Liverpool have to cling to was the disallowed goal. At 1-1, it might well have turned out to be a different game.

17:31Virgil van Dijk gets a clean header on this. and there is interpretation on the law whether this should or should not have been disallowed because of Andy Robertson's position in front of the goalkeeper in this instance. So the goal is disallowed on field, Villar have a look at it, and they agree that he is deemed to be making an obvious action directly in front of the goalkeeper. That's their interpretation, but what about the argument that potentially he sees that all the way? I think he does see it all the way. So should it then be disallowed? I don't think it should have, based on what we can see with our eyes, but the rulebook's the rulebook.

18:06So if the referee is reading that, or someone's in his ear going, by the way, these are the rules, that angle's not favourable to Liverpool. But I think the other angle is favourable, because you can clearly see he's in a fight. His role clearly is to block the goalkeeper. He's in a fight with Doku. This angle here, he's in a fight with Doku. You could argue when he connects with the ball, He can see that. His line of vision isn't impeded by Robertson. It's more impeded by Doku for me. If we're looking at the line of the ball... You've got a reward also, the defensive team. There's a reason they're coming up.

18:41They're not leaving people standing on the post to clear their line. They've practised this. So, yes, he's a yard from the goalkeeper. So he is in his eye line. Can we just play that last angle one more time? I think the reason why they probably gave it is because he ducked. so if you're a goalkeeper and you're set and you get any movement around you just look at Robertson when it comes in here if you roll it on a little bit more he ducks out the way so now the keeper's thinking is he going towards the ball I think it's that movement they are referring to rather than the fact that there's any line of vision which is impeding the goalkeeper in that instance it's the movement it's a movement I don't like it Have a look at the bottom point here.

19:28Making an obvious action, Roy, which clearly impacts on the ability of an opponent to play. Yeah, and it affects the goalkeeper, because if he's thinking he might get a touch in it, then that affects his movement, surely. And the whole idea of these defenders doing it, they do drills, they come out so they catch people offside. And what they'll say is, like, yeah, it's interfering with the goalkeeper. Even the fact that he's ducking, that obviously puts the goalkeeper off. And if you look at the goalkeeper's reaction, he's very smart, obviously, vastly experienced. He complains straight away. He doesn't wait for the flag.

19:55he's saying listen this has affected my decision-making let's go to 2-0 then and Roy was making the point that perhaps there wasn't that intensity about Liverpool's defending which has allowed Nico Gonzalez to get a shot away you look at here where's the intensity remember this is coming up to half-time big moments here City on top very much look and players aren't getting out and I don't want to hear anybody saying defenders will probably say that they said Van Dijk might be unlucky he's not unlucky you've got to get out squeeze up put pressure on the ball. Daniel, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, it's not good to see.

20:29Obviously, you know, we're talking about a goal where the shot wasn't even good, if we're being honest. But hit the target, you know, these are the types of things that can happen. Of course, he could have done better, but you get those rewards sometimes when things go your way. So Liverpool had a better spell at the start of the second half, but then this really ended it as a contest, Micah. Talk us through this from Jeremy Doku. Well, Daniel mentioned that he had a plan in his head, the little shimmy, and then the finish is just absolutely devastating. And I think what it means, sometimes you see Doku in these positions, and he gets in really good positions at times, and you don't know what he's going to do with it, but he was clear in what he wanted to do, and then the finish is just...

21:12The finish is brilliant. Just enjoy that technique for a moment. I love watching that. Absolutely fantastic. But what you have, when you have a player cutting in like this, Liverpool have to have players coming across. I know you're not going to listen to me. It's a brilliant bit of skill. I'd watch it all day. Sexy football, fantastic. But from Liverpool's point of view, when a player cuts in, into the box, you've got to get people getting out of it. You watch players just dangling their legs. That's not what champions do. You put your body on the line. Hey, fantastic finish. And I'd watch it all night.

21:45Listen, I love watching goals like that. Amazing, great bit of skill. but from Liverpool's point of view, how badly do they want it? Yeah, we'll come to that, but that little bit of skill from Doki where he hangs his foot over the ball before bringing it back across. Like a line dance or something? I don't know what it was. That skill always worked for him. He's one of the only ones you see do it. It's that yard that... I can talk about that small bit of power that he has. You cannot match it as a defender because he knows what he wants to do. It's about him making the decision and going for the move When he does that, he's unstoppable.

22:48big talking points. Just search for Inside the Huddle wherever you get your podcasts and give us a follow.

22:57This is the Sky Sports Premier League podcast. Let's get more analysis of the game and return to the student. Five defeats in six games and Liverpool have never lost more than five of their first 11 matches in Premier League season. Difficult times for Arna Slott, who's with Patrick Davison. Well, Arne, anyone can come here and lose. How do you feel about the way you've lost, the way you've performed? Very, very difficult first half for us. I would almost say, as you can expect if you go here, because they were pressing us really high, we were very good in ball possession. We struggled a lot in the first half.

23:40So we were hoping you can get the end of the first half with a 1-0 in behind. Then, of course, there were five to ten minutes that have been influential to the game. So instead of going 1-1 at half-time or maybe 2-1 down, it ended up being 2-0 down at half-time. In the second half I saw a much better performance from us than in the first half, but in the first half it was obvious that they were better than us. Give us your view then on that influential moment, as you put it. Yeah, it's difficult for me to give my view about it. I think it's obvious and clear that the wrong decision has been made, at least in my opinion.

24:18Sorry, why do you think that? Because he didn't interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do. Immediately after the game, someone showed me the goal, what the same referee allowed City against Wolves last season, Wolves against City last season. So it took the linesman 13 seconds to raise his flag to say it's offside. So there was clearly communication. But as I said, that could have influenced the game in a positive way for us, because in the first half we were so poor. But a set-piece can make a difference and now we conceded the 2-0 from a set-piece. That was maybe a fair reflection of the first half, by the way, us being 2-0 down.

25:04But that's maybe not what it's about. It's kind of an obvious question, but how big a moment is that? because clearly the difference between 1-1 and 2-0 is significant. Yeah, especially if the game went as it went. We would have been lucky going 1-0 down at half-time, let alone if it was 1-1 or 2-1 down. So it has been an influential decision, which is not to say that we then would have had a result over here, because you cannot predict how the second half would have gone then, because it was again obvious and clear that City was the first half by far, And as you say, probably not fair to focus in entirely on the referee, because you said yourself first half you were really poor.

25:47Why? Really poor, or they were really good. That didn't lead to a lot of chances, but they were dominating the game, they were better than us. We were having a lot of problems, trouble to bring the ball out from the back, so we lost it too early and then they started playing. Again, that didn't lead to chance after chance after chance. And even if you then look back at the goals, the first one was across from them, which we were in the right position. We were a little bit unlucky with the deflection of even 2-0 set-piece. And in the meantime, we've also conceded a penalty because the VAR overturned the decision from the referee.