Jurgen Klopp said last night he was staggered by the cheating jibe aimed by Pep Guardiola at Sadio Mane but could not resist a retaliatory dig at Manchester City’s reputation for tactical fouling.

This weekend’s Premier League showdown between the title rivals has all the makings of an epic grudge match after Liverpool manager Klopp queried why City counterpart Guardiola was talking about the Anfield club in the immediate aftermath of his own team’s comeback victory over Southampton.

There is growing bewilderment on Merseyside at the champions’ fixation with Liverpool.

“I couldn’t really believe it to be honest and then I saw it. I am not sure if Pep spoke in that moment about Sadio or the team – both is not too nice to be honest,” said Klopp. “I am not too sure if I want to put oil on the fire. I am not interested in these kind of things. And I promise not to mention tactical fouls.

“That is maybe already too much. I can say Sadio is not a diver. There was a situation in the Aston Villa game where he got contact and went down. Maybe it was not a penalty but there was contact. It’s not like jumping over a leg and [acting] like he hit you or whatever. All the other penalties were penalties because he was in that situation. I am 100 per cent sure if something like this happened for Manchester City they would want to have a penalty, because somebody kicked their player in the box and that’s a penalty.”