What did Pep Guardiola say about Liverpool in the Premier League title race?

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has warned about the prospect of complacency after his side’s comfortable 4-0 win over Brighton & Hove Albion. The reigning champions leapfrogged Liverpool with that victory but Guardiola insisted that his side should be wary of their recent struggles.

“Many things can happen. What happened to Liverpool, against Crystal Palace and Everton, can happen to us. It can happen to Arsenal. Nobody is safe from that,” Guardiola explained.

“The game against Crystal Palace, the chances they missed. Tell me a reason why. I’ll tell you, it’s football. I can give you a lot of examples for my team too... But it’s still there because I know the character of Liverpool, they will fight until the end and we have to do it too.”

Thursday’s win leaves them one point adrift of league leaders Arsenal and two points clear of Liverpool. City, however, have played one game fewer than their two closest rivals. Their extra match is a tricky midweek fixture against Tottenham Hotspur, to be played on the final week of the Premier League season.

Has anyone ever won the Premier League four times in a row?

In a word, no. In fact in the history of English league soccer, stretching back to 1888, no team has ever won the championship in four successive seasons. Across that 135-year period only a handful of teams have ever won three league titles in a row and they each rank among the all-time greats of English soccer.

Only five clubs have ever managed that feat and only Manchester United, during the dynasty of Sir Alex Ferguson, have completed the hat trick twice. Manchester City can go one better if they lift the title again this season and would reiterate their status as one of the most dominant teams in English soccer history.

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But despite their proximity with greatness, the City boss is not getting carried away. City still have five games to play and are battling with two other teams at the top of the table, a rarity in recent Premier League history.

“So be calm, be happy today for the victory. The players are still there. Now just recover and think of the next one,” Guardiola said. “We have been here in the past but that doesn’t mean just for the fact we’ve been here that it’s going to happen. We have to do the things to make it happen.”