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Jurgen Klopp admitted he is already looking forward to Liverpool's New Year's Eve showdown with Manchester City after the Reds saw off Stoke at Anfield.

Pep Guardiola was in attendance to see Klopp's men record a 4-1 win which lifts them above City into second place in the Premier League table.

City have not won at Anfield since 2003, and a defeat for either side in Saturday's box office contest would be a significant blow to their title hopes.

Klopp, though, was in positive mood ahead of the game.

"Pep Guardiola was here tonight," he said. "Michael Edwards, the sporting director, messaged me to say that.

"I'm not sure he watched a lot of games in other stadiums the last few weeks, eh? That's the first sign that it is a special game!

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"We are already looking forward. It's a difficult game for both teams, but an exciting one. The best news for us is that it's at Anfield.

"What can I say, I'm really looking forward to it. They're an outstanding side, we are not too bad. It'll be a nice game."

Asked whether Guardiola's presence at Anfield was a sign of respect from the City boss, Klopp added: "I don't know. I respect them a lot, but I have not been to City's stadium this season or last to watch games. Maybe they want to watch good football, maybe Pep saw nothing tonight?

"The game is on the 31st. So whatever I say tonight, we cannot win it tonight. But maybe I could say a few things that make it more difficult for us. It's probably best I shut my mouth!"

Klopp was pleased after seeing his side overcome a slow start to eventually power past Stoke. Liverpool trailed in the first half, but turned the game round before the interval and were too strong for their visitors after the break.

“Confidence is not a problem of the team at the moment. We know about our quality, but obviously we don't show it all the time.

"The start of the game was really difficult, because the plan of Stoke was to press really high especially with the two strikers. We were not patient enough in our passing game, we could have done more.

"It became a wild game, and when they had the ball it was immediately in the air. (Peter) Crouch did outstanding work, he was really difficult to defend, Joe Allen was brilliant with the second balls in the beginning. We had to work really hard, and it was completely open.

"In the creating of our moments, we struggled a little bit with protection, our positioning, holding the wing, these things.

"A lot of things we could have done better, but we forced two goals with our quality. Both were really good, really important.

"At 2-1 we could adjust at half time, we spoke about a few things. We scored a wonderful third goal and then Daniel closed the game. That was really important.

"It was clear. Stoke is a good team, and Mark Hughes likes to bring Crouch against Liverpool. I don't know how often we played against them, but Crouchy was always involved!"