Good evening, Manchester City fans. Here are your evening headlines for Saturday, November 7.
Ederson defends Pickford over van Dijk challenge
Manchester City goalkeeper Ederson has defended Everton’s Jordan Pickford over the challenge that seriously injured Virgil van Dijk.
The Liverpool defender could be sidelined for the remainder of the season after the England international lunged into him during the Merseyside derby, but Ederson believes there was no malicious intent, comparing it to Sadio Mane’s infamous high boot he was on the receiving end of back in 2017.
"First and foremost, I don't think any player steps on the pitch looking to injure an opponent," he said, via The Mirror .
"Sometimes you have a fraction of a second to make a decision. Unfortunately, Jordan Pickford had that clash with Van Dijk and it ended up resulting in a serious injury. That's part of football; sometimes it happens. It could happen to any of us.
"I don't think it was Pickford's intention to injure Van Dijk and in the same way I don't think it was Mane's intention to do that when he clashed with me in our game a few years ago. You have such a short time to make a decision and it could happen to any of us.”
Klopp responds to ‘obsessive’ Guardiola claim
Jurgen Klopp has given his take on the claim Pep Guardiola is obsessive, praising the City manager for how he prepares for matches.
In his pre-match press conference, one journalist pointed out that in the ‘All Or Nothing’ Amazon documentary series, Guardiola appeared to be obsessive in how he prepared for Liverpool.
“He's obsessed?!” Klopp responded, when the claim was put to him. "I didn't watch the documentary so I don't know what you are talking about!
"Very often when you play against an opponent you realise that pretty much all the preparation is really difficult because when they play against us they change everything and that makes it really tricky because you don't know what to expect.
“In this case, yes, City do what they always do and it is that good they do it always because if wasn't that good they would change it from time to time.
"That makes it a challenge in the preparation but interesting as well because you don't play a lot of games against a team with such a high quality like City in specific areas where they play and all this kind of thing.”
Here’s what the Liverpool manager said in full ahead of tomorrow’s big match.
Rashford cites Sterling’s inspiration for his activism
Manchester United striker Marcus Rashford has given a new interview on the first episode of the Football Association's Black, England and Proud series .
The 23-year-old said that City forward Raheem Sterling, who has never shied away from speaking out about racial injustice, has been an inspiration when it comes to speaking out about issues in society.
Rashford, who has received an MBE for his dedicated campaigning against the issue of childhood poverty in Britain, might be an academy graduate of City’s rivals but he has nothing but respect for Sterling, with whom he plays alongside for England.
"The most recent one was probably Raheem when he started speaking about the issues that he has faced," he said.
"For me, Raheem showed me if you're not happy about something say it and make people aware of it. It's not a crime to tell people what you think, it's probably the biggest thing that sparked change for me."
