Arne Slot asked if he felt sorry for Pep Guardiola after 'fired in the morning' chants

Liverpool manager Arne Slot showed no sympathy for his counterpart Pep Guardiola after his side's victory against a struggling Manchester City.

The Reds' opening goal from Cody Gakpo and a subsequent penalty from Mohamed Salah sealed a 2-0 victory at Anfield, handing City their fourth successive Premier League defeat and leaving them an uncomfortable 11 points behind the leaders.

This dismal phase marks Guardiola's poorest run in an illustrious managerial career, but despite this, Slot believes the Spaniard deserves no pity due to his extensive trophy catalog with City, which includes 18 major honours.

Slot remarked: “You feel sympathy or empathy with managers who are in a very bad situation, they have lost many games or are bottom of the league.

“But Pep has won so much and has already shown it so many times – the championship is not decided in November or December, so no one has to feel empathy or pity for Pep. Maybe d 'other managers, but not Pep.'

Slot is convinced that Guardiola will resurrect City from their crisis: “He will be able to bring City back to life.”

With Liverpool now sitting comfortably nine points ahead of Arsenal, Slot remains balanced despite recent impressive wins.

He added: “Playing against Real Madrid and Manchester City – teams who have been and are so good with managers who have won so many trophies – it’s always nice to come out on top.

“But the reason they won so much is because they won every three days. Even though we're really happy with these two wins, we know it's not enough to win at the end of the season.”

However, Real Madrid's midweek victory was overshadowed by injuries to Conor Bradley and Ibrahima Konate. With both players now facing several weeks off the field, Slot lamented: “It's always difficult to judge how long, but both will be out for a few weeks.”

A cheeky refrain from Liverpool fans saying “you're sacked in the morning” aimed at Guardiola was met with humor as the City manager held up six fingers to represent his collection of Premier League crowns. Guardiola's reaction was light: “I didn't expect Anfield to start chanting at 0-2 that I would be sacked.

“Maybe I deserve to be sacked with our results or maybe I'm still in the job because I won six Premier Leagues and a lot of titles. “At Anfield I didn't expect it but How's it going. It's part of the game. When you win, you laugh. When you lose, they laugh.”

Guardiola, however, did not mince words about his team's performance, admitting that City had lost their competitive edge. He said: “We congratulate Liverpool on a well-deserved victory. The first 15-20 minutes we had, like many other times here at our peak, we suffered.

“People don't like the lineup, but we can't compete with Liverpool and many other clubs who are transitional teams.

“Our threat is unclear. We feel like we still don't have the threat we've always had as a team and defensively we're not strong enough right now.”

The City boss is optimistic, however, saying he wants to turn things around from the next game: “I want the team and the players to come back. I have the feeling that from there we start to build something.

“Call me delusional, but I have the feeling that from now on we will start to rebuild winning games and regain confidence.

“This group of players gave me everything – probably the best years of my life as a coach – but I have to find a solution with the players to try to win games.”