Mohamed Salah insists Manchester City firmly remain Liverpool’s main title threat even though the Reds can open up an 11-point gap over the reigning Premier League champions next weekend.
The Reds beat Southampton 3-2 at St Mary’s on Sunday thanks to a second-half brace from Salah, now on 10 goals and 10 assists in 17 matches across all competitions.
Liverpool, who came from 2-1 down on the south coast, are now eight clear of Man City atop the table after Pep Guardiola’s team were hammered 4-0 by Tottenham at the Etihad the night before.
The two teams go head-to-head at Anfield next Sunday in a game which could have a monumental impact on who wins the league. Arne Slot’s Liverpool can move 11 clear or City can trim the gap back to five points.
Chelsea, Arsenal and Brighton all lurk just one point behind City and ready to pounce into contention. But Salah says it is the Citizens, who have won the last four titles and five of the last six aside from 2019-20, who are the big threat for him and his team-mates.
Salah told Sky Sports: “It’s great. Hopefully we keep going in that direction and also we have a game against them so hopefully we win it and go more, like 11 points, ahead of them.
“Yeah of course, of course (they are our biggest rivals). Man City is Man City. They’re having a bad time now but they’re going to strike back, they have a great coach, great players and hopefully we can beat them and go further (clear of them).”
His team-mate and fellow goalscorer Dominik Szoboszlai was asked the same question about City being Liverpool’s main rivals and replied: “Of course, you’ve seen in the last six years they’ve won five titles. Of course. It’s never finished until it’s finished.
“Of course it’s a great feeling but as you say, it’s the beginning of the season. We still need to continue and don’t think about where City are, where Arsenal are, where the other teams are. Because as long as we do how we do now, we’re going to continue.”
Salah has scored in five successive league matches for the table-toppers and City are one of his favourite opponents to face. He has 11 goals and six assists from 20 appearances against them in a red shirt.
He added of the win over Southampton: “It’s very important, especially because we were down 2-1. I’m glad we managed to win the game. That’s the most important thing. Southampton had a game plan and played very well.
“We had a good game plan too and tried to play our game. I was confident that we were going to have chances and the only focus in my head was to use the opportunity to score.”
While Szoboszlai reflected: “We came out second half a little bit… not how we started the game. They are a really good team playing good with the ball, against the ball.
“They scored two quick goals but the most important thing was the reaction, we showed that really well. We’re happy with the three points. We had a couple of meetings before the game and we knew they try to build up from behind.
“Sometimes they do really well but sometimes also they’re humans as well so they do mistakes. That was the case. We pressed really well and they made the mistakes and we scored the goals.”
Before facing City in a top-of-the-table clash, Liverpool welcome Real Madrid – who they failed to beat in six meetings under previous manager Jurgen Klopp – to Anfield in a mouthwatering Champions League match.
The Reds lost two finals in the competition, 2018 and 2022, under Klopp and have not beaten the Spanish giants since March 2009.
