Fernandinho has claimed the Liverpool side that won the Premier League last season were not as good as the team Man City beat to the title in 2019.
Jurgen Klopp's side finished 18 points ahead of Pep Guardiola's men last year to be crowned English champions for the first time since 1990, but dropped 10 points following Project Restart to finish on 99 points after drawing three and losing three of their 38 games.
The Reds only lost one game in 2018/19 but finished two points worse off as Man City pipped them to the title by a solitary point.
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But despite Liverpool's title-winning side statistically being the superior, Fernandinho has played down the Reds' success due to Man City's own flailing challenge when sharing his hopes for the title race this season.
“We need the games, it's as simple as that. It's not easy because they (Liverpool) are in very good shape," the Brazil international was quoted as saying by the M.E.N. "They won the Premier League last season, but two seasons ago they were even better than the last one.
"Of course, if you reduce the mistakes we made last season we have a chance to compete against them again. It would be nice for us and for them to keep that level to keep fighting until the end of the season to see who is going to be the best team.”
Manchester City have already dropped five points out of nine this season following Saturday's draw with Leeds United, and could trail Liverpool by eight points heading into the October international break should the Reds beat Aston Villa on Sunday night.
