Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola says the PFA Player of the Year award is "always for Liverpool " as he revealed that he doesn't expect to see Kevin De Bruyne pick up this year's gong.
The Belgian is up against several candidates from the league title-winning Reds side, including their captain Jordan Henderson who picked up the Premier League trophy at Anfield on Wednesday evening and won the Football Writers' Player of the Year award on Friday.
In the last two seasons when it has been City who won the league, it was still Liverpool players who won the PFA award which was voted for by their fellow professionals.
Virgil van Dijk won it last season when the Reds narrowly missed out to City by a point in the league, and Mohamed Salah pipped De Bruyne to the award after his stellar 2017/18 campaign in which he scored 44 goals in all competitions.
De Bruyne has a strong case this time around after turning in terrific individual displays in the face of Liverpool's team dominance, but Guardiola still expects the award will go to a player from the side 18 points clear at the top of the league.
"No, no, [it] will be won by a Liverpool player," he told BBC Radio Manchester.
"When we won the Premier Leagues, it was won by a Liverpool player.
"When they win the Premier League, I'm pretty sure they are going to win the player of the season, this award is always for Liverpool."
Henderson pipped De Bruyne to the Football Writers' award on Tuesday despite facing some stiff opposition.
Marcus Rashford, Virgil Van Dijk and Sadio Mane were the other members of the top five, with 10 other players receiving votes from members.
They were: Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson Becker, Raheem Sterling, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Sergio Aguero, Adama Traore, Danny Ings, Jack Grealish, James Maddison and Jonny Evans.
