Liverpool and Arsenal should be worried about a resurgent Manchester City following their impressive comeback win over Everton, according to Mail Sport’s Ian Ladyman.
Fresh off the back of winning the Club World Cup, City came from behind in their first match back from Saudi Arabia to take a 3-1 victory in a tricky fixture at Goodison Park.
It leaves them five points off leaders Liverpool and three behind Arsenal, with both the Gunners and Pep Guardiola’s side having a game-in-hand over the Reds.
Speaking on the latest edition of Mail Sport’s It’s All Kicking Off podcast, Ladyman suggested to co-host Chris Sutton that Man City had sent an ominous warning to their two biggest rivals to this year’s title.
He said: ‘I don’t know about you Chris, it felt to me last night that City are now ready to do what they always do which is go into top gear in the second-half of the season, and if I was Liverpool or Arsenal, I’d be worried about that.’
Man City came from behind to beat Everton in their first game back from the Club World Cup
Mail Sport’s Ian Ladyman believes Liverpool and Arsenal should be ‘worried’ about Man City kicking up into top gear during the second-half of the season as they have previously shown
Ladyman says Man City are now ‘ready to do what they always do’ after the win over Everton
Sutton agreed with Ladyman, insisting that Liverpool and Arsenal need to ‘strive and hang on in there’.
He said: ‘Of course they will be worried about what City have achieved over Pep’s tenure.
‘You’ve described Manchester City as ‘winning Christmas’ haven’t you? Pep’s not bothered about winning Christmas, he’s bothered about winning the Premier League, winning the Champions League.
‘And this is where we think they’re going to really get going. Which is why it’s up to Liverpool and Arsenal to really strive and hang on in there and show consistency because it’s a worry.
‘Haaland by all accounts, from everything I’ve read, it looks like he’s going to be back later on in January (from his injury).
‘That’s a problem but then you can have Haaland back, you can have (Kevin) De Bruyne back and then there’s trouble at the mill as you’d say.’
Man City have a history of kicking on in the second half of seasons to win the Premier League title.
Just last season, Guardiola’s side were five points behind Arsenal on Christmas Day last year before going on to win the title by just as many points.
Chris Sutton (left) believes Liverpool and Arsenal need to ‘strive and hang on in there’ if they are able to bring City’s stranglehold of the Premier League title to an end this season
Man City were without both Erling Haaland (pictured) and Kevin De Bruyne against Everton
Guardiola’s side went into the Club World Cup on the back of a tricky run of form, failing to win four of their five matches in the league.
The Spaniard was in a fighting mood before the game with Everton, telling the media that people want his side to ‘fail more than ever’.
He added: ‘What we have won, the titles, is unbelievable – and the people say “how good they play, the methodology, how genius it is.” But it is because I win. They don’t understand anything about what we do, but they give credit just because we win.
‘You have to look further than that. In the moment you don’t win there are going to be doubts – but that is what is nice. That is okay. Doubt us again. We’ll see what happens.’
Ladyman said Guardiola had a ‘little bit of Jurgen Klopp’ about him with his post match celebrations in front of the Man City fans, and that his interviews before and after the game were ‘spiky’.
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