Pep Guardiola Furious With Match Officials As Liverpool Thrash Man City

The City manager was incensed after he saw his side denied two penalties during another epic meeting between the two title chasing sides at Anfield.

Fabinho fired Liverpool into an early lead, less than 30 seconds after City thought they should have been awarded a spot kick when the ball ricocheted onto the hand of Trent Alexander-Arnold.

Mohamed Salah doubled the lead with a brilliant header following a pinpoint cross from Andy Robertson and Sadio Mane ensured three points for Liverpool, nodding home at the far post after another brilliant delivery from out wide, this time from Jordan Henderson six minutes after the re-start.

Bernardo Silva set up a tense finish, denying Liverpool their first clean sheet at home this season, with a crisp low shot from just inside the penalty area.

Guardiola felt his side were denied another penalty soon after when the ball again struck Alexander-Arnold on the hand following a Raheem Sterling cross. VAR, however, ruled the Liverpool full-back was not at fault, sparking a hysterical reaction from the City manager on the sidelines.

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After the final whistle blew, Guardiola shook the hand of every player on the pitch before moving towards the match officials and sarcastically thanked them for their performance.

On the incident that sparked so much controversy in the first half, Alexander-Arnold said: ‘There’s VAR. I think it [the ball] might have hit my arm but it hit Bernardo Silva’s first.

You have to carry on playing, they complained but you have to keep on playing. ‘We’re on a good run, we are still unbeaten, at home we have the advantage with the fans so every time we are here we want to pick up the three points we feel we should.

‘We picked up a lot last season to get to 97 points and it wasn’t enough and we know we have to do something similar this time. ‘It was always going to be a feisty contest. It was just about desire at the end of the day because both teams wanted to win.’