Pep Guardiola urges his Manchester City stars to learn from Anfield pain after thrilling first loss to Liverpool

Pep Guardiola has challenged his Manchester City stars to use their dramatic 4-3 defeat at Liverpool as a warning to guard against complacency.

The leaders fell behind to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s early opener and although Leroy Sane equalised before half-time, City were blown away by three goals in nine second half minutes from Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah.

Although late goals from Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan put a flattering gloss on the scoresheet, City boss Guardiola had no complaints about his side’s first league defeat since April 5 at Chelsea.

It was City’s first domestic defeat since an FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal on April 23.

Conceding that all the talk of City winning the title at a canter and possibly going unbeaten throughout the entire season made it hard to keep his players motivated, the Spaniard said: “In every press conference for the last few months you have said that the Premier League is done.