Pep Guardiola has taken a brutal excavation in Liverpool, and insists that even the Runaway Premier League leaders cannot match the 100-point record of his husband of Manchester City.
City has written down the astonishing count during the 2017-18 season in their first top-flight triumph under Guardiola and so far no team has been able to match or surpass it.
This campaign, the bid of the champions in a fifth consecutive competition crown collapsed in an explosive way and they now follow the side of Arne Slot with 16 points.
But even when the Reds cross the line, they will still not be able to repeat the performance of the city.
“We took all the records in England,” said Guardiola. 'Who would now do 100 points in modern football? I wait. Or four in a row? I am waiting – with clubs such as Bournemouth, Fulham and Wolves that you have to play.
“We dictated the standards. Have you seen Liverpool this season?
“They can't already do 100 points – 99 but not 100.”
Guardiola also accepted that City went off the boil this season and added: 'I asked Gundo (Ilkay Gundogan) yesterday: “Two years ago you were here, you were in Barcelona for a year and you came back here, you have here changed in the Premier League?
“He said enormously, the difference was incredible. It is the truth. The teams are much, much, much better in all departments. People prepare so well.
'We can't do it for the (injury) problems we have had. There are many players, with the amount of minutes they have had, who are also so tired, emotional.
'But guys, we deserve to have a bad season.
“We deserve to not be the way we were. They are people, it can happen. We were not consistent and we didn't have the players at their best.
“It is the first time that I and many of the players have lived this position, but we have to accept (and recognize) what happened in the past was not normal.”
City is also confronted with a tough fight to continue to the Last-16 of the Champions League after their 3-2 home defeat in the first stage of their knockout round play-off.
“We can't hold on for 90 minutes, that's right,” Guardiola said. 'We are in this posotie because we are not good enough.
'In the second half against Madrid, when they keep the ball and start playing, playing, playing, we regain the ball and we want to – in two seconds – try to score a goal. We lose the ball and then [Kylian] Mbappe and Vinicius run even more.
'During the great, great success of the team, we were able to do sequences of 20, 25, 30 fits in half of the opponents – now we can't do that.
'Before we had the confidence to play with the ball and now we suffer when we have the ball. We take risks and make mistakes – that did not happen in previous years.
'I accept that when the opponents have the ball, I will suffer. But now we suffer when we have the ball. It has never happened before. '
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