Manchester City moved to within a point of second-placed Leicester with a 3-1 win on Saturday Night Football
Sunday 22 December 2019 17:03, UK
Manchester City remain the biggest threat standing in the way of Liverpool's first Premier League title, according to Jamie Redknapp.
Pep Guardiola's side moved 11 points behind the league leaders courtesy of a 3-1 win over second-placed Leicester at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday Night Football.
The result means that Liverpool will be 10 points clear with a game in hand on Christmas Day, the joint-third biggest lead of any team in Premier League history.
But the Reds have been top of the Premier League on December 25 two times before, and on both occasions, they missed out on lifting the trophy.
Former Liverpool midfielder Redknapp was in the Sky Sports studio to witness Guardiola's men make it back-to-back Premier League wins following the 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United a fortnight ago, and he feels that City won't have given up hope of a third straight crown.
He told Sky Sports: "If there were to be a miracle and Liverpool were to lose the title, I still think it would only come from Manchester City.
"They showed today the quality that they've got, and they were far and away the best side both in and out of possession. We talked about them getting countered but they handled every situation so well.
"Points-wise, obviously it wouldn't have been so good [for Liverpool], as they would've closed the gap, and Boxing Day becomes so important, but these City players are winners.
"If you were to offer Brendan Rodgers top four right now, and he'd probably take that, but that means getting into the Champions League again, but City want to win the title.
"They will want to try to win it three times on the bounce, but I still think it will be a miracle if someone beats Liverpool now."
City remain 11 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool - who were not in Premier League action this weekend - but the impressive nature of the victory suggests they will still have a big say in the second half of the season.
Jurgen Klopp's side were crowned world champions for the first time in their 127-year history on Saturday courtesy of a 1-0 win over Flamengo in Qatar - but Jamie Carragher insisted the club's priority remains becoming English champions for the first time since 1990.
He told Sky Sports: "The main thing for Liverpool is winning the Premier League, that far outweighs anything. They've gone out of the Carabao Cup and Leicester and Man City have gone through and have another couple of games each in January.
"But Liverpool won't be taking anything for granted and today's result is probably the best one opposed to Leicester winning. If they had won and then beat Liverpool, it would have been down to a four points gap and it just shows you how quickly it can change but there's so long to go.
"I think we've known it for a long time, certainly going back to last season that the two best teams in this league are Man City and Liverpool, probably by a far way.
"What Leicester have done was to split them, being second in the league and City almost having to get past Leicester before they think about catching Liverpool so it shows how well they've done.
"Brendan Rodgers mentioned there was a lack of aggression, Leicester weren't really themselves, which is credit to City because they were brilliant throughout the game, but Leicester will be disappointed with how they performed.
"This is a difficult place to come and they can perform better than that and I'm sure they will."
It was another exquisite performance from Kevin De Bruyne, six days on from his match-winning display in the 3-0 win at Arsenal. The Belgian assisted Gabriel Jesus for City's third, one of seven chances created throughout the game.
"He's my favourite player," Carragher added. "I love him. I wish he was in a red shirt rather than a sky blue one.
"He was having injury problems last season but if you go back two years, he looked almost nailed on to be PFA Player of the Year until Mo Salah had an unbelievable second half of the season and got that award.
"But the way he's playing now he looks like the main man in the Premier League. He's one of the best players in the world.
"The way we'll end up speaking in these next few months about David Silva, as his time is coming to the end, I think we'll be speaking about De Bruyne in the same way."
Read Nick Wright's analysis of De Bruyne being 'on another level'
