Jeremy Doku has claimed Liverpool “weren’t better“ than Manchester City in Sunday’s Premier League encounter at the Etihad.
The Reds came away with a 2-0 win that saw them move 11 points clear at the top of the table and pick up a first win at City in nearly a decade. Mohamed Salah got the ball rolling after 14 minutes when he struck past Ederson, thanks to a helpful deflection off Nathan Ake.
The early goal allowed Liverpool to sit deep and absorb pressure for the rest of the game before picking its moments to attack and springing forward with two No. 10s, while Salah and Luis Diaz provided penetration in the wide areas.
READ MORE: Gary Neville compares himself to Trent Alexander-Arnold after Liverpool showing vs Man City
READ MORE: Jamie Carragher names 3 positions Liverpool can still improve in summer after title declaration
Dominik Szoboszlai struck to make it 2-0 just before half-time, further reducing the need to find offensive openings. City ended the game with twice the number of shots and two-thirds of possession as a result, although Alisson didn’t have to make many stops, and the hosts registered an expected goal of under one.
Nevertheless, due to City’s control of the game, Doku felt it was his team that performed best on Sunday. “To be fair, if I look at the game, I don't think that they were much better than us,” the Belgian winger told Sky Sports.
“Two goals, one set-piece and the second goal was a long ball, so well done to them. We know their qualities and that they like to play in behind. They did well and after it is hard to come back against a team that defends well like that.
“We played well, but the situations that we had, we could have dealt better with them. Today we played better against them than we did away. Of course, there is a gap in points, but today, you can't say that they ran over us.”
Guardiola also referenced how City faced a Liverpool team that sat “so deep“ and had ‘10 players in the box’.
“We played really good,” he told Sky Sports. “We arrived, I don’t know how many times in the byline really good, and we have to be more productive with our shots from our people in the middle.
“We played against a fantastic team and a really good performance. The game in the first half was more open; it was 50/50 and they scored from a set-piece. The chances we had we could not convert and in the second half they defend so deep, are dangerous on transitions, but we controled it really well, expect one or two actions.”
