LIVERPOOL. — Liverpool had to put in a near-flawless performance to defeat old rivals Manchester City who have so often thwarted their league title ambitions, manager Arne Slot said on Sunday.

The Reds thoroughly deserved to beat Pep Guardiola’s side 2-0 to take a nine-point lead in the Premier League in what was Slot’s 18th win of 20 games in charge of Liverpool.

“If you want to win against City you have to be perfect in every part of the game. We came close to perfection,” he said, as jubilant fans chanted his name around Anfield as they did midweek after beating Real Madrid in the Champions League.

Emphasizing his injury worries in defence, with only five senior players available, Slot said there was still a long way to go before Liverpool had a trophy in their hands.

“If you want to win anything, it’s all about consistency. These teams, like Real Madrid, like City, are all capable of getting the same winning streak that we have, so let’s not get carried away by a few wins,” he said.

DEFENDERS OUT

Ahead of a busy December and New Year’s fixture list, Slot said defenders Ibrahima Konate and Conor Bradley would remain out for a few weeks, while Kostas Tsimikas was unlikely to be available for another week.

Having taken over from the enormously popular Juergen Klopp, Liverpool’s new manager was feted by the crowd throughout Sunday’s game and thanked them for giving energy to his team.

He lamented that Liverpool did not seal the game earlier, with chance-after-chance going begging, but said that at least made it a great game for neutrals.

“The amount of chances we miss made it tight at the end. But maybe that’s nice for matches like this,” he said, adding that he had enjoyed watching past Liverpool-City encounters for that same reason.

“I don’t think anyone, including me would have predicted this,” he said, referring to his amazing start at Anfield and praising the excellent state Klopp left the club in.

“It has been a good week, but let’s not get carried away too much … I saw Arsenal yesterday (beating West Ham 5-2) and City, they will come back … Arsenal and City are able to win every game from now till the end. Chelsea are able to win every game.

“It makes the Premier League so interesting.” — Reuters.