Liverpool's manager Arne Slot showed zero sympathy for his counterpart Pep Guardiola following his side’s triumph against a struggling Manchester City.
The Reds’ early goal from Cody Gakpo and a subsequent Mohamed Salah penalty sealed a 2-0 victory at Anfield, handing City their fourth back-to-back Premier League loss and leaving them lagging an uncomfortable 11 points behind the leaders.
This dismal phase marks Guardiola's poorest streak in an illustrious managerial career, but despite this, Slot feels the Spaniard doesn't warrant pity due to his expansive trophy catalogue with City, which includes 18 major honours.
Slot remarked: "You feel sympathy or empathy with the managers in a really bad place, they have lost many games or are down at the bottom of the league.
"But Pep has won so many things and shown so many times already – the league is not decided in November or December, so no-one has to feel empathy or sorry for Pep. Maybe other managers, but not Pep."
Slot has full confidence that Guardiola will resurrect City from their slump: "He will be able to bring City back."
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With Liverpool now sitting comfortably with a nine-point lead over Arsenal, Slot remains level-headed despite recent impressive wins.
He added: "Playing against Real Madrid and Manchester City – teams that have been and are so good with managers that have won so many trophies – it is always nice to come out as a winner.
"But the reason they have won so much is they won every three days, so while we are really happy with these two wins we know it is not enough to win at the end of the season."
However, the afterglow of the midweek Real Madrid victory was dimmed by injuries to Conor Bradley and Ibrahima Konate. With both players now facing several weeks off the pitch, Slot lamented: "It is always difficult to judge how long but both will be out for a few weeks."
A cheeky chorus from Liverpool supporters of ‘you're getting sacked in the morning’ aimed at Guardiola was met with wit as the City coach brandished six fingers to represent his collection of Premier League crowns. Guardiola's reaction was light-hearted: "I didn’t expect Anfield to start to chant at 0-2 that I would be sacked.
"Maybe I deserve to be sacked with our results or maybe I’m still in the job because I won six Premier Leagues and a lot of titles. "At Anfield I didn’t expect it but it’s fine. It’s part of the game. When you win, you laugh. When you lose, they laugh."
Guardiola, however, did not mince words about his team's performance, conceding that City had lost their competitive sharpness. He said: "We congratulate Liverpool for a well-deserved victory. The first 15-20 minutes we experienced like many other times coming here in our prime – we suffered.
"People don’t like the line-up but we cannot compete against Liverpool and many, many other clubs that are transitional teams.
"Our threat is not clear. We feel that we still don’t have the threat that we have always had as a team and defensively we are not solid enough right now."
The City boss is optimistic though, saying he wants to turn things around starting with their next match: "I want the team back, and the players back. I have the feeling that from here we start to build something.
"Call me delusional, but I have the feeling that from here we will start to build back to winning games and confidence.
"This group of players gave me everything – probably the best years of my life as a manager – but I have to find a solution with the players to try to win games."
