Pep Guardiola urged his Man City players to forget about Arsenal slipping up against Sunderland and lay down a marker by beating reigning champions Liverpool.

Goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku saw City’s players answer their manager’s call in emphatic style in what was the 1,000th game of his coaching career.

The Gunners’ winning streak came to an end at the Stadium of Light on Saturday evening when Bryan Brobbey’s acrobatic injury time effort secured an unlikely point for this season’s surprise packages.

City knew that a victory against a Liverpool side buoyed by-back-to-back wins would pull them to within four points of the leaders, but Guardiola insisted proving they could go toe-to-toe with Arne Slot’s men was more important than the size of any gap at the top.

Speaking in in his post match press conference, Guardiola said: ‘I’m pretty sure when Arsenal was equalised at the end from Sunderland, and it can happen because I’m not surprised, beyond surprised by what Sunderland is doing and the way they are doing it, I think Liverpool and myself are thinking ‘oh wow, they dropped points finally and concede two goals.

Wake...