Pep Guardiola has claimed that he was ‘afraid’ of seeing his Manchester City team fall far off the pace set by Liverpool in this season’s Premier League.
Having won a major treble of trophies last term, along with the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup in the latter half of 2023, the English champions endured a rare slump in form domestically prior to Christmas, with a sequence of just one win in six top-flight fixtures.
They’ve won both of their league matches since that fallow period but still find themselves five points adrift of the Reds at the summit, albeit with a game in hand on Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Guardiola has admitted that he was wary of a sense of post-treble fatigue following a shortened summer break, while also paying a compliment to the challenge that Liverpool are posing this season.
The City boss said (via Manchester Evening News): “I didn’t know what was going to happen after winning the treble with no rest to get our gear off and a hangover from the treble.
“Immediately [there was] Japan, Community Shield, we didn’t have any time mentally to recover; not even myself – I was tired when I started [the season].
“The competition helped us to have a spark, to reignite again, and that’s why we won two titles already and have qualified in the Champions League and are there. I was a little afraid to be far, far away because I know how Liverpool is back playing unbelievable with their best moments in many years.”
Guardiola is right to be wary of the dangers of Liverpool striding off into the distance at the Premier League summit, having done so in 2020, although the Reds have already dropped far more points than they did at this stage of the season four years ago.
Nonetheless, the City manager is patently aware that Klopp’s side are back in the groove after the aberration of the 2022/23 campaign, when we were nowhere near any sort of a title challenge.
Some LFC fans may be fearing a familiar post-New Year resurgence from the reigning champions, who reeled in a nine-point gap midway through the 2018/19 season to pip us by a point in the final reckoning, and they should be a much stronger proposition now that they have Kevin De Bruyne back from a long-term injury.
The good news for Liverpool is that we’re still the masters of our destiny even if the Sky Blues win their game in hand, although the margin for error from hereon is likely to be minimal.
We could easily witness yet another titanic title tussle between the two teams who’ve dominated English football over the past six years.