Pep Guardiola will have inadvertently piled the pressure on Arne Slot with his latest comments about his rivalry with Jurgen Klopp.
The Manchester City boss credited the German tactician with giving him his ‘biggest challenge’ when clashing with his Liverpool side in the Premier League.
DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL EMPIRE OF THE KOP APP FOR ALL THE LATEST & BREAKING UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON APPLE & GOOGLE PLAY
It was a formidable rivalry that saw both sides push each other to remarkable points tallies in the English top-flight – including the Sky Blues’ record-breaking ‘Centurions’ season in 2017/18.
Pep Guardiola puts pressure on Arne Slot
Fabrizio Romano relayed Guardiola’s comments on X (formerly Twitter), with the Spanish head coach refusing to give Real Madrid too much credit after City dropped out of the Champions League.
Los Blancos suffered a 5-1 defeat on aggregate to Alvaro Arbeloa’s men, with Vinicius Jr piling on the misery at the Etihad in a 2-1 victory for the visitors.
🚨 Pep Guardiola: “Real Madrid have not been my biggest challenge. My biggest challenge has been Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool”.
“Maybe you’re in Spain [journalists] and you didn’t notice… You have no idea how it was like to face Liverpool in those games, a great learning… pic.twitter.com/dKa5oiWT6N
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) March 18, 2026
Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust
However, in the former Barcelona boss’s mind, he’s yet to witness a challenge greater than the one supplied by Klopp’s Liverpool.
The data is against Arne Slot’s Liverpool this season
It’s worth noting that Arne Slot’s points tally (84) in 2024/25 doesn’t even make the top 10 in Premier League history.
| Teams | Points totals |
| Man City (2017/18) – Champions | 100 |
| Liverpool (2019/20) – Champions | 99 |
| Man City (2018/19) – Champions | 98 |
| Liverpool (2018/19) – Runners-up | 97 |
| Chelsea (2004/05) – Champions | 95 |
That’s some going, given that previous tallies secured by Jurgen Klopp quite often saw his side still fall short of Guardiola’s goliath City sides.
To be completely fair to Liverpool’s current manager, the Reds were by far the most dominant side in the Premier League last term. Were it not for a post-PSG drop in performance levels, this was arguably a side more than capable of breaching the 90-point mark.
However, there can be no excuses at this stage of the season in 2025/26. Liverpool have been shockingly inconsistent.
While there are mitigating factors to take into consideration, we should be comfortably holding down a top four spot with the quality available in the squad.
Either way, the not-so-distant memory of Jurgen Klopp’s prior successes will hardly be doing Arne Slot any favours now amid the increasingly looming sack threat hanging over his head.
Obviously klopp is his most formidable opponent. From Germany to England, pep has managed 2 of the richest teams and winning is almost guaranteed year in year out. Then came klopp who won with dortmund and Liverpool. The season when man c was paced all the way till the last day can actually see Liverpool claim the title any other year. Respect is vice versa.