Pep Guardiola is full of praise for 'fantastic' Liverpool

Pep Guardiola is pleased with Manchester City's overall performance this season but says title rivals Liverpool have simply been "phenomenal".

City trail runaway leaders Liverpool by 16 points and manager Guardiola has long since conceded defeat in the race for this season's title.

Yet City are still second and last season they became the first side to retain the Premier League title in decade.

0:44 John Aldridge won a league title with Liverpool in 1988. He believes the current side could go down as the greatest in the club’s history John Aldridge won a league title with Liverpool in 1988. He believes the current side could go down as the greatest in the club’s history

Guardiola admits Liverpool have been a class apart this term but is convinced his side would be in the running for the title in any of the other major leagues in Europe.

"Liverpool obviously will be champions of the Premier League, but they would be champions in Spain, champions in Italy, champions in Germany," he said. "They would be champions everywhere after 23 games, 22 victories, one draw.

1:05 Jurgen Klopp insisted he and his team will not get drawn into the celebrations as the supporters sang 'We're going to win the league' during their 2-0 win against Manchester United Jurgen Klopp insisted he and his team will not get drawn into the celebrations as the supporters sang 'We're going to win the league' during their 2-0 win against Manchester United

"In the recent past when Chelsea won the league, the next season, they didn't qualify for the Champions League, Leicester the same and Chelsea again the same. When we won the league we repeated the league.

"In Spain with the points we have we would be there, one or two points behind the leader, in Germany we would be there, one or two points behind the leader, in Italy as well.

"But Liverpool are just fantastic, phenomenal, overwhelming. So we have to accept it and learn from that."