Premier League: Winning against Liverpool is not a priority says Pep Guardiola

Manchester City FC manager Pep Guardiola feels that their match against Liverpool wouldn't play a factor in deciding if his team will win their third successive Premier League title this season. Guardiola claimed that his side does not need to win at Anfield if they want to lift the League title.

In a recent interview, Guardiola said that he wouldn't prioritise his team's game against Liverpool ahead of City's UEFA Champions League fixtures.

Manchester City will travel to Anfield to face Liverpool FC in a crucial Premier League tie next Sunday. Ahead of that, the Sky Blues have yet another away game to play in the form of a Champions League encounter against Atalanta in Italy. The UCL game is due on Wednesday.

Although Man City is sitting comfortably on top of their Group C table, Guardiola says he won't take any chances against Atalanta. Guardiola stated that he won't rest any of his key players during the mid-week Champions League clash even when a big game is lined up for the weekend at Anfield.

When reporters asked Guardiola about his views, he said, "We're going to play with the best team possible to win at Atalanta, and after we go to Anfield. Nobody can assure me that if we don't do what we have to do at Atalanta then we are going to make a better performance against Liverpool. The best way to go to Anfield is to play a good game against Atalanta, who have been fighting with the top clubs in Italy for the last two or three seasons. That is the point."

ESPN reports, one of the other reasons why Guardiola isn't in favour of resting his players is maybe because his side is already stretched due to injuries suffered by multiple footballers in the squad. Aymeric Laporte, Leroy Sane, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Rodrigo Hernández Cascante are already injured. David Silva is the recent addition to the list. He is unlikely to play against either Atalanta or Liverpool.

Speaking of Silva's injury concerns, Guardiola said that when the problem is related to muscles, it would generally take an average of 10-12 days to recover.

Liverpool and Manchester City are currently occupying the top two spots in this year's Premier League points table. The Reds are leading the defending League Champions by six points. Jurgen Klopp's side is unbeaten in this year's Premier League and their last home game defeat came in April 2017 when they lost 2-1 to Crystal Palace.