Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has hailed Manchester City for the way they have responded to the challenge of taking on Liverpool in pursuit of the Premier League title.
After Liverpool beat Newcastle 1-0 in Saturday's lunchtime kick-off, City responded in the perfect manner just a few hours later, beating Leeds 4-0 at Elland Road. Rodri gave City a first-half lead, before Nathan Ake, Gabriel Jesus and Fernandinho inflicted further misery on the Yorkshire club.
The victory moved City one point back ahead of Liverpool with four games left to play, with neither side showing any signs of taking their foot off the gas in pursuit of the title. City will be playing catch-up as far as their next two league games are concerned, with Liverpool taking to the pitch a day earlier on both occasions.
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However, Neville has waxed lyrical about Pep Guardiola's side's ability to deal with such extreme pressure. He also hailed Liverpool for their ability to deal with it as well.
"The thing that actually City have done tonight [Saturday], which is massively impressive, but they make it look easy, is that when we were up against the team going for a title and they played before us, we always wanted to play first," Neville told Sky Sports. "When Liverpool have gone and done what they did at lunchtime today at Newcastle, after Villarreal in midweek and all the games they've had recently, you're thinking that switches the pressure to City, but you never really get the impression that these two teams feel that pressure.
"That's because of their dominance, because of their class, because of their composure, because of their rhythm. Everything that they have. They just seem to be in control, they seem to be enjoying it.
"When we were going through these tussles with Arsenal, or Chelsea or Blackburn in the mid-90s, it always felt like a fight. But this doesn't feel like that, even when they played against each other in that brilliant 2-2 draw.
"Liverpool did very well to come back in and then there were hugs at the end and it's a very pleasant, respectful run-in.
"But you cannot deny the excellence of both of these clubs and both of these teams at this moment in time because it is a standard that we've not seen before in terms of consistency at the end of the season. You could say that in other seasons, teams have gone on these types of runs towards the end, but these teams are in the Champions League, they're in the FA Cups. they're in the Carabao Cups, they are playing tonnes of matches and still doing it."
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