Guardiola thanks Doku and Manchester City for ‘present’ of Liverpool victory

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Pep Guardiola praised Jérémy Doku and thanked Manchester City for giving him the “incredible present” of a 3-0 victory over Liverpool in his 1,000th match as a manager.First-half goals from Erling Haaland and Nico González and an outstanding 20-yard individual Doku effort after the break took City to within four points of Premier League leaders Arsenal.As half-time neared, Virgil van Dijk’s header was ruled out after Andy Robertson, standing in front of the City goalkeeper, Gianluigi Donnarumma, was adjudged to have interfered with play.This was Guardiola’s 716th career victory and the former Bayern Munich and Barcelona manager said: “Thank you to the players and staff for giving me an incredible present against the most important opponent we faced in my time here. It has been a special night with my kids here.”Of Doku, Guardiola said: “I think he will never be a top scorer, to be honest, but he’s demanding himself to be better, he listens, and has special attributes of dribbling.

We tried to help him and he played an outstanding game.”Guardiola, for whom this was a 550th game as City’s manager, was asked about Arsenal dropping two points at Sunderland on Saturday. Today we proved it – especially in the first half.”Virgil van Dijk’s header went in but the goal was disallowed for offside by Andy Robertson.

The best time to judge the league table is after 38 but the next best is after 19 when everyone has played the same opponent.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSlot was asked about Van Dijk’s disallowed strike. He [Robertson] didn’t interfere at all with what the goalkeeper could do,” the manager said.The Dutchman said that the referee, Chris Kavanagh, awarded John Stones’s goal for City in last season’s 2-1 win over Wolves when Bernardo Silva was in a similar zone in front of Wolves’ goalkeeper José Sá.He said: “Immediately after the game someone showed me the goal that the same referee allowed – City against Wolves last season.