Passionate Pep knows the title race ain’t scarf hotting up now

AS the bounce off the post went celebration-side for Leroy Sane, Pep Guardiola turned to his staff and let out some sort of guttural roar.

He knew this was not just about keeping title hopes alive, he knew this was personal.

Not in any sort of unpleasant way, far from it.

The mutual admiration between Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp burns as brightly as ever.

But had Guardiola failed to overcome Klopp for a fifth successive time, the suggestion the German had his number would have grown.

That probably had something to do with why scarf-throwing Pep lost the plot with fourth official Martin Atkinson late on and was lucky to stay downstairs.

Klopp looked on in bemusment.

The Liverpool boss has always been laughingly dismissive of the mind-games concept so quite what he was doing staring at and studying a circle of warming-up City players is anybody’s guess.

Perhaps he was wondering why Kyle Walker was not there, instead going through the motions with his fellow substitutes.

Whatever the reason, Klopp was never going to keep a low profile and was front and centre of the technical area from moment one.

These are coaches who genuinely believe some they can make a significant difference from the technical area, although they looked like two coaches who were concerned about their tactics and selections.

Guardiola (below) is beginning to show some frustration with one or two individuals, Walker one of those.

The balance of the back four he started here, with Aymeric Laporte at left-back, did not look ideal and was way too easily disturbed by the simple Mo Salah pass that led to the struck post and goalline-clearance drama.

For the first time in a long while, Guardiola has cut a slightly uncertain figure of late.

That was in common with his players for long swathes of a contest that was furiously disjointed. It was the sheer athleticism, speed and strength of these players that actually dulled the quality at times.

Pass-completion rates must have seemed poor but that was because the pace of interception was lightning. Dawdle and consequences could be dire, as Dejan Lovren found when Sergio Aguero bolted on to Bernardo Silva’s assist.

Aguero remains invaluable to Guardiola but, with Gabriel Jesus still not hitting any great heights, City will surely be looking at the striker market this summer.

Just as they will be looking at the central-midfielder market, although, on this evidence, Fernandinho, magnificent from start to finish, might well have at least one more season in him.

Klopp’s needs might not be as great, even though his frustration with parts of this performance boiled over with some regularity.

And if he did indeed have any doubts over putting James Milner in from the start, they were confirmed when the veteran was hooked early in the second half.

Klopp had actually been a little prickly in the long build-up to this event and he will be glad it has now been and gone.

Annoyed that Roberto Firmino’s header was rendered irrelevant by Sane’s winner but glad to get back to more routine fixtures.

But as they embraced at the final whistle, Pep and Jurgen knew there are many more chapters to come in what will become one of football’s classic rivalries.