Pep Guardiola took aim Jamie Carragher and his fellow pundits, so the former Liverpool vice-captain came back with response on social media

Jamie Carragher has clapped back at Pep Guardiola after the Manchester City boss questioned the former Liverpool defender and his Sky Sports colleagues.

This all stems from the fact the winners of the last three Premier League titles have now dropped points in their last three matches due to conceding late goals. Draws with Chelsea, the Reds and Tottenham Hotspur leave them six points adrift of top spot, albeit with a game in hand.

The run has also allowed Liverpool to climb above into second, so naturally Carragher put the idea out that the reining champions were suffering from complacency.

Post-Spurs he asked: “When you’ve won numerous titles, maybe the stadium is flat, is there a feeling of maybe waiting for the business end of the season?”

“If you asked us all, I think we’d still fancy Manchester City for the title. We’ve seen this before with City, where they go on a run during the second half of the season and win 10 or 12 games on the bounce and go away from other teams. Maybe, this season, Arsenal will be stronger from their experience in those moments and we know Liverpool have been there before.”

His fellow pundits Gary Neville and Micah Richards on Sky Sports also spoke about City’s recent dip – perhaps truths Guardiola was not happy to hear.

As well as remaining confident in his side’s chances for a fourth consecutive league triumph at the end of the season, the Spaniard responded to the ex-professionals one by one.

In his press conference on Wednesday he replied: “He knows how difficult it is. Otherwise, Gary Neville would’ve won four [consecutive] Premier Leagues in the best period of Manchester United. But he didn’t do it, you know?

“Jamie Carragher didn’t win one once. Micah Richards didn’t win four Premier Leagues in a row. Never, ever. It’s never happened. There is more chance of if it not happening than happening. Just one Treble before us. It’s so difficult to do it again and again. We don’t have what others have, who haven’t done it for many, many years.”

He didn’t dare mention ex-Manchester United man Roy Keane, who along with Carragher expressed his doubts on Sunday.

Finding the quotes late on Tuesday night, Carragher could only think of one way to hit back at the City manager, replying with this message on X:

As pointed out in the above post, the serial trophy winners are under investigation for 115 breaches of the league’s financial rules and later failing to cooperate. A final verdict was recently said to be coming in mid-2025 – almost 16 years before the first alleged offences took place.

Carragher – like plenty of Reds legends of the era – made it to the end of their careers without winning a Premier League title. He came closest to doing so in the 2008/09 campaign behind United by four points, which was the season City were bought by Sheikh Mansour of Abu Dhabi.

The year after his retirement Liverpool ended the season in second behind City, then managed by Manuel Pellegrini, which is one of the titles under scrutiny as part of the trial.