Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City's 3-0 win over defending Premier League champions Liverpool shows his side are ready to compete for the title again this season.
Arne Slot’s side were swept aside by City at the Etihad via goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and the outstanding Jeremy Doku, and although Liverpool had a strong case Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed header should have stood, there was no denying they were second best.
The win sees City move up to second, four points behind Arsenal after their 2-2 draw at Sunderland on Saturday, with a fifth league win in six suggesting they are back in the mix after finishing 13 points behind Liverpool last term.
"I said to the players, 'Don’t do it because yesterday Arsenal didn’t win, do it because we believe in ourselves that we can play against the champions of England and show they we are ready to be there with him this season’," Guardiola said.
"Today we proved it, we did it – especially in the first half."
But while Guardiola can think of putting pressure on Mikel Arteta’s Gunners after the international break, Arne Slot admitted Liverpool cannot spend time thinking about the title race until they have fixed the issues which have seen them lose five of 11 in the league to fall eight points off the pace.
Slot is still trying to assimilate £400million (€455m) worth of summer signings into his squad, with every metric so far suggesting they have regressed rather than progressed from the side that won the league by 10 points last term.
"(Five defeats) feels too many," Slot said. "The last thing I should speak about is the title race. We should focus on getting results before we can even think about that. The reality is we are eighth now. One team is quite far ahead, City are four points behind Arsenal.
"I said last season many times, even when we were leading, the best time to judge the league is of course after 38 games and then next best is after 19 games because you have played all the opponents.
"Our first focus should be on getting results and the last thing we should focus on is the title race…We need to improve, that is obvious."
However, former Republic of Ireland and Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane believes Liverpool are now out of the title race and in crisis.
Liverpool have lost four away games in succession for the first time in 13 years and have conceded 17 goals in their 11 league matches.
"At this moment in time you can’t be considering Liverpool for the Premier League title; that’s five losses now," former Manchester United captain Keane told Sky Sports.
"I think it is crisis time for Liverpool, to lose seven in 10 with five league losses this season, it has to be a crisis for a team like Liverpool.
"Defensively they are all over the place. The full-backs are a huge problem, the centre-half (Ibrahima Konate) looks a nervous wreck.
"You watch players dangling their legs, it’s not what champions do. Put your body on the line.
"If you are not at it as a team and are a little bit off get the basics right, stopping crosses and being difficult to play against.
"From Liverpool’s point of view, how badly to they want it?"
Liverpool’s £100m summer signing Florian Wirtz has come under scrutiny for his form since joining from Bayer Leverkusen and despite impressing in the midweek Champions League win over Real Madrid he struggled again.
Former City defender Micah Richards feels the playmaker has created an unwanted issue for Slot.
"Today we didn’t see Wirtz again and that becomes a problem for the manager," he said.
"If you are bought for that amount of money, regardless from what league you are coming from, you should be showing more than he is showing now. You get bought for that money to show up in big games."
