LONDON – Pep Guardiola was irritated and he wanted everyone to know it. After seeing his Manchester City side go three points clear of Liverpool, Guardiola gave this title rivalry a more spiky edge with three games remaining.
“Everyone in this country supports Liverpool,” Guardiola said after City routed Newcastle 5-0. “The media and everyone,” he added according to AP.
It was a groundless claim and an approach the prickly manager carried over from a post-match beIN Sports television interview into the news conference.
It had been a routine opening question that Guardiola faced about whether he was “ecstatic” with the performance after City’s collapse at Real Madrid in the Champions League semifinals.
“Did you have any doubts?” Guardiola asked the reporter from a British newspaper. “You´re a Liverpool fan. Come on.”
That claim was refuted as another reporter exposed his actual allegiances.
Maybe it was just a motivational mechanism to spur his players or just his own insecurities. But it was clear on Sunday that Guardiola was trying to cast his team – one of the richest in the world – as the underdog compared to Liverpool.
This is a City side that has won five Premier League titles since ending a 44-year title drought in 2012.
Liverpool only ended a 30-year drought in 2020 but it is the 19-time champion of England, only one behind Manchester United’s record.
City is on seven English titles and is yet to be crowned champions of Europe which Liverpool can be for a seventh time by beating Real Madrid in the Champions League final on May 28.
This maybe helps to show why Guardiola is so irritated about Liverpool’s perceived greater standing in the game.
“Liverpool has an incredible history behind (it) in European competition – not in Premier Leagues, because they´ve won one in 30 years – but it´s not a problem at all,” Guardiola said, explaining why he believed the media was on the side of City’s rival. “The situation is what it is.”
It has taken Abu Dhabi investment into City since 2008 to elevate the team’s status in the global game and emerge from the shadow of once-dominant neighbor United.
There were fresh reports, not referenced by Guardiola, about the Premier League investigation into whether City breached financial rules to pay for its squad and glory.
“I know we are sometimes uncomfortable, but I don´t care,” Guardiola said. “The people want Liverpool to win more than us. It´s not an issue. It´s normal. Maybe they have more supporters all around the world and in England maybe more support Liverpool than us.
“But the question is today, before the start of the game, the people cheering and supporting us they know that even being out of the Champions League, we can rely on those players.”
Manchester City started celebrations to mark a decade since its first Premier League title by trying to prevent the sixth success being as tense or dramatic with a rout started and ended by Raheem Sterling.
What had been a tight title race is now more firmly in City’s control after a 5-0 victory over Newcastle sent the champions three points clear of Liverpool on Sunday.
How costly Liverpool only drawing with Tottenham Saturday could prove to be, with City now also holding a superior goal difference of plus-4 over its rival with three games to go.
Between a pair of goals from Sterling, Aymeric Laporte, Rodri and Phil Foden also found the net.
The stylish win ensured City could even have the luxury of dropping points in a remaining game and still win a sixth English title in 10 years.
“We´ve bounced back perfectly,” City attacker Jack Grealish said. “We´ve stuck together as a team and as a unit the last few days which was needed and now we´ll just try to finish the season strongly.”
In years to come, it could be Newcastle challenging City for honors not just in the Premier League but in Europe too.
“We´re richer than you,” Newcastle fans mockingly taunted their City counterparts.
But City showed the advantage of 14 years of Abu Dhabi funding over a Newcastle side that has had only one transfer window since being bought by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and spent to avoid relegation.
Once Chris Wood’s tame header wasted a chance to give Newcastle the lead, João Cancelo headed across the face of the visiting goal and Sterling nodded City in front in the 19th minute.
Newcastle goalkeeper Martin Dubravka’s inability to hold off Ilkay Gündogan’s strike from outside the penalty area eventually allowed Laporte to pounce for the second goal in the 38th. That goal came from a corner, as did the third in the 61st when Rodri headed in from Kevin De Bruyne’s delivery.
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