Mo Salah couldn’t hide his inner glee at seeing Manchester City fall further behind Liverpool in the Premier League title race this weekend.
The defending champions have now lost their last three top-flight games, including a 0-4 drubbing at home to Tottenham on Saturday, and the Reds took full advantage of that latest slip-up by coming from behind to beat Southampton 3-2 today.
It leaves Arne Slot’s side eight points clear of their nearest rivals ahead of the two teams facing off at Anfield next Sunday, when a home win would leave LFC in a hugely commanding position in the table.
Salah lets slip his true feelings about City
Speaking to Sky Sports after Liverpool’s victory this afternoon (in which his two second-half goals swung the match decisively), Salah let slip his true feelings about City’s recent slump.
The 32-year-old instinctively said: “It’s great! Hopefully we keep going in the right direction and also we have a game against them, so hopefully we win it and go ahead even more, 11 points or something like that.”
However, the Egyptian King made it clear that he still has enormous respect for Pep Guardiola’s side – when asked if they remain the Reds’ main title rivals, he answered: “Yeah, of course. Man City are Man City. They are having a bad time now but they can strike back. They have a great coach and great players.”
Salah means it as a compliment
We imagine that City fans may be triggered by Salah’s post-match comments, but they’d be naive to think that their own players didn’t revel in slip-ups by Liverpool and Arsenal when those teams were challenging them for the title in recent years.
Also, the Reds’ number 11 was quick to point out that he still views Guardiola’s side as their strongest rivals for supremacy this season despite their poor form of late. If anything, those of a Manchester blue persuasion should take his remarks as a compliment.
It must be remembered, too, that the 32-year-old has twice been involved in LFC teams which took City to the final day of the Premier League campaign but came up one point short on both occasions, despite losing just once and twice in the division in those respective years.
Salah knows all too well that, while Liverpool may be in a very healthy position now, the defending champions are capable of reeling in significant deficits with an imperious post-Christmas run.
It goes without saying that a win against the Cityzens next Sunday would feel enormous psychologically for the Merseysiders, who’ve suffered frequently at the hands of those from the Etihad Stadium over the past decadef.
Hardly trolling. He was merely expressing a hope but continued to say that he has tremendous respect for Pep and his players.