'Call me delusional' - Pep Guardiola makes Man City claim and compliments 'amazing' Liverpool midfielder'Call me delusional' - Pep Guardiola makes Man City claim and compliments 'amazing' Liverpool midfielder

After implying that Manchester City's performance in their loss to Liverpool would mark a sea change in their season, Pep Guardiola acknowledges that some will label him "delusional." However, as the Reds continue to expand their advantage at the top of the Premier League, the City manager acknowledges that they were well-deserved winners.

Arne Slot's team won 2-0 at Anfield on Sunday afternoon thanks to goals from Cody Gakpo early on and Mohamed Salah's penalty in the second half.

Champions Manchester City are currently an overwhelming 11 points behind Liverpool, who are already nine points ahead at the top.

"We congratulate Liverpool for a well-deserved victory," Guardiola added. The first fifteen to twenty minutes were similar to many of our previous visits when we were at our best. They deserved the goal; we suffered.

"We take the game after that. Although I am aware that some people dislike the lineups, we are unable to compete with Liverpool and a plethora of other transitional teams.

I'm a huge fan of wingers, but we wanted more control because we know that when they lose it, they go straight to Salah, Luiz, Gakpo, or Nunez. at a game, they are far stronger and faster than us at that position.

"I feel like we start building something from here. Call me crazy, but I feel like we're going to start regaining our confidence and winning games from here.

Guardiola added: “If today we give up when you come to Anfield, you go home with a terrible result. The team was there all the time, resilient in the bad moments knowing what was going to happen because we have experienced many times and that they could not drop and be negative.

“The last 15-20 minutes in the first half and the second half for the first 25-30 minutes the game was what we wanted without the threat that we expected to create with our passes. We didn't create much. You have to play games to create chances and we don't have it.

"Thank you to Rico (Lewis), Manu (Nunes), and Bernardo (Silva) for playing a position they aren't used to in order to fight Gravenberch. His first control is incredible, followed by Mac Allister, Szoboszlai, and eventually Jones." We worked so hard.

City have now lost six of their last seven games in all competitions and have been beaten four times in succession in the Premier League, extending their worst run under Guardiola.

“Our target cannot be talking about titles in November or December but we didn't do it when we were top of the league,” said the City boss.

“At the end, we are not far away from Arsenal or teams there but Liverpool win all the games in the Champions League and in the Premier League have just lost one here. That means how good they are doing. All we can do is congratulate them and learn from Liverpool.

"I used to live a better life than I do today. The wine even had a greater flavour. However, I am quite honest with myself, and when we were winning a lot, I thought I was lucky to be alive. Now, however, I am not depressed about how horrible things are.

It appears that our previous actions were simple, but I am aware of Klopp's strength, as well as that of Liverpool, Arsenal, and the teams we defeated in the previous seasons. The truth is that we are not as strong as we once were in many situations.

"I want the players and the team to return." The fact that four or five players are returning and that the training sessions are now better makes it significant.