Manchester City relishing prospect of Liverpool test, says Ilkay Gundogan

The old adage may be to take one game at a time, but Manchester City are comfortable in defying convention which is why Ilkay Gundogan is content to reveal the champions are already looking towards their visit to Liverpool.

The two favourites for the Premier League title will meet at Anfield on 7 October, where City lost 4-3 last season, their first league defeat of that campaign and a result sufficiently destabilising that it fed their anxieties later in the season when Jurgen Klopp’s team also knocked them out of the Champions League.

City have three matches before then – away to Oxford in the Carabao Cup, at home to Brighton, and then a visit to Hoffenheim in Europe, where they need to recover from their shock opening group stage defeat to Lyon.

But Gundogan – who scored a breathtaking goal and was the conductor of a symphonic performance in south Wales - is thinking less about that visit to his German homeland than the showdown with Liverpool.

“At the moment it looks like those games against the top clubs will be important,” said Gundogan after his goal, two from Riyad Mahrez, his first for the club, and others from Sergio Aguero and Bernardo Silva had dismantled a thoroughly outclassed Cardiff.

“We play Liverpool in a couple of weeks so it will be a real test for us at Anfield as they are also getting their points.

“Liverpool is a very strong team and Chelsea are very strong. United just dropped points against Wolves, like we did, so I think Wolves will cause a lot of problems.

“But it’s up to us in the end. We are trying to play like we did today because when we are ready like this our chances of winning games and titles are the highest. So that’s what we try to achieve every game.”

Showing no ill effects from their midweek home defeat to Lyon, Pep Guardiola’s return to the touchline from his banishment in the stands inspired City to give their most dominant performance of the season so far.

They scored five, but could have had at least 10 and it might well have been double figures had the Bluebirds midfielder Joe Ralls been sent off just before half-time for a reckless lunge at Gundogan.

Referee Michael Oliver, who was well-placed to make a better judgement, only gave a yellow card but Gundogan admitted: “It’s a little bit sore and a little bit painful now but I was lucky. It was a bad challenge but it’s okay.”

It said much about City’s unwillingness to be distracted from their objectives this season – at home and in the Champions League – that neither their manager nor midfielder made more of that challenge.

When these teams had met previously, in a bad-tempered FA Cup tie in January, the post-match talk was dominated by Guardiola’s assertion that referees were not protecting his players.

open image in gallery

But Gundogan believes there is a flexibility about City this season which means they can ride the challenges, both literally and metaphorically.

“The beginning wasn’t easy because we knew Cardiff are a very physical team and we knew they were going to play a lot of long balls, so it was about winning the second balls and being aggressive,” added Gundogan.

“When we play like we did here it’s very difficult for opponents to beat us.

“We missed it in the first-first-half against Lyon, we were not aggressive enough. We weren’t winning the duels and that’s why we conceded two easy goals.

“Today was different, that’s why we scored five and didn’t concede.”

Cardiff’s former Manchester City full-back Greg Cunningham admitted it had been a mis-match, but shared the opinion of his manager Neil Warnock that matches against the likes of City are not where Cardiff are going to unearth their first victory.

“You go into every game trying to do as best as you can,” said Cunningham.

“But we've just got to dust ourselves down and look at Burnley next week. That will be a big one. Against top-six opposition you are going to struggle and find it hard. But we need to win against the teams around us. Burnley is massive now.”