'Incredible' - Pep Guardiola blown away by Liverpool star who he's 'really impressed' by

Pep Guardiola heaped praise on Conor Bradley after Liverpool fell to defeat by Manchester City.

The Reds’ hopes of defending the Premier League title after suffering a 3-0 loss at the Etihad Stadium. Arne Slot’s champions were condemned to a fifth league loss in six matches, which leaves them eight points behind Arsenal after 11 games.

City were well deserving of their triumph, with Erling Haaland missing a penalty before breaking the deadlock with a powerful header. Nico Gonzalez doubled the advantage in first-half stoppage-time and then man-of-the-match Jeremy Doku rounded off the triumph after the break.

Bradley, who was Liverpool’s best player in the 1-0 win over Real Madrid in the Champions League earlier in the week, had a good battle with Doku throughout the game. And Guardiola revealed he has been ‘really impressed’ by the Northern Ireland international. The City boss revealed that his assistant Pep Lijnders, who was former Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s right-hand man, remains a huge advocate of Bradley’s ability.

Speaking at his post-match press conference, Guardiola said: "I think he [Doku] will never be a top, top scorer, to be honest. But he's demanding himself to be better, he listens, and he has special attributes with dribbles.

"Today, Conor [Bradley] - the right-back of Liverpool - I'm really, really impressed! Pep Lijnders told me a thousand incredibly good things about that guy, he can do everything. I know the game against Madrid how good [he was] against Vinicius - he's wow, right?

"And he [Doku] handled it! He was aggressive, quick without the ball, and we tried to help him. Listen, he played an outstanding game!"

City’s triumph moved them four points above Liverpool in the table - and four adrift of Arsenal. Liverpool and City have together won the past eight Premier League titles, although it looks like it will be the latter who will be the chief threat to the Gunners’ quest to end their 22-year wait this season.

Guardiola took charge of his 1000th game of his managerial career against Liverpool, which ended in the perfect manner. He told Sky Sports: "My players gave me a good present with this performance against the champions. We had to perform good and many good things happened, they all performed to the highest level.

"Defensively it was really good. We know their threat in behind with Mo [Salah] and the quality of [Dominik] Szoboszlai and [Florian] Wirtz and we have incredible energy with our people. Playing at home and winning is good for the international break.

"Gigi [Donnarumma] made the saves he should. Both the full-backs were outstanding. The midfielders gave us a lot of passes and control. Of course the threat of Jeremy [Doku] was outstanding alongside Erling [Haaland]."