Guardiola says Liverpool are inspiring City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said that Liverpool are keeping his squad driven this season.

The two sides are both undefeated so far this season in the Premier League as Reds boss Jurgen Klopp tries to close the gap on the Spaniard’s impressive champions.

And the former Barcelona coach has referred back to the 2009/10 season as evidence of how much quality can be required to beat a close rival.

“I remember perfectly that season how tough it was because more than ninety-six points.” he said.

“Madrid with Manuel [Pellegrini] played incredibly good, it was so nice we did that ninety-nine points when the year before we won the triple with Barcelona.

“That is why we maintained that level, we did ninety-nine points with someone from behind pushing us and we knew that if we dropped points Madrid is going to win the title and that is why it helped us.

“It is similar to Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, no? They put one better over the other one because they knew.” he said in reference to the leading men’s tennis players.

“And they knew, I didn’t tell them but they knew how strong Liverpool are, and they knew that we can’t drop points because if we do, Liverpool is going to win the League.

“You can say Liverpool, Chelsea the same or Tottenham in that moment, Arsenal as well.

“To compete you need good opponents close and this season we have it here and in Europe.” he finished.

Liverpool will be hoping that City slip up somewhere and that the gap is close enough to be taken advantage of.