Pep Guardiola insists he is proud of his Manchester City side after their 3-1 defeat at Liverpool and believes they showed why they are Premier League champions.

Manchester City put Liverpool under early pressure from two set pieces, but the Reds defence cleared well and then the visitors were stung at the other end. 

 



After Manchester City had an appeal for a Trent Alexander-Arnold handball turned down after Liverpool went up the other end and Fabinho unleashed a sublime shot from around 25 yards out which flew into the back of the net, making it 1-0 to the Reds after five minutes.

Raheem Sterling shot wide for Manchester City shortly afterwards, before Sergio Aguero did not take advantage of a tempting free-kick delivery, and the Citizens were made to pay when Liverpool made it 2-0 in the 14th minute.
 


It was Mohamed Salah who scored, Andrew Robertson providing the cross and the Liverpool striker powering a header past Claudio Bravo.



Manchester City pushed to mount a comeback, but were dealt a killer blow in the 52nd minute when Jordan Henderson found Sadio Mane, whose header squeezed past Bravo to make it 3-0.

The visitors gave themselves hope with 12 minutes left when Bernardo Silva pulled one back.
 

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It was too little too late though and Liverpool are now nine points ahead of Manchester City in the Premier League.

Guardiola is not disheartened however and hailed how his team played, telling Sky Sports post match: "What happened today we showed why we are champions, I am so proud of my team, more than ever. We can be proud of how we played against the strongest team in Europe."

Responding to the controversy which saw a penalty appeal for his side turned down, Guardiola added: "Ask to the referees, don't ask me. Ask to Mike Riley and the guys in VAR. I would like to talk about our performance, it was so good. It was one of the best performances we have played.

"We played like back-to-back champions. We cannot deny how good Liverpool are but the way we played, the personality, it was good.

"It was quite similar to the Champions League game. It was an incredible situations in that game too but the performance today was so good.

"Always we try, never give up that is why we are back-to-back champions. Always fight until the end", he added.