Pep Guardiola makes Premier League observation that Arne Slot is already well aware of

Pep Guardiola acknowledged that his side's recent in the .

moved to the top of the standings — for the time being at least — as Erling Haaland scored the only goal of the game in a 1-0 win over at the Etihad Stadium. And when Haaland netted in the fifth minute, many fans would have been expecting the Premier League champions to go on to record a comfortable victory.

However, that was not the case as Saints produced a resolute defensive display and also carried an attacking threat of their own, with City, in the end, happy to escape with all three points by any means necessary.

A week earlier, City required an injury time goal from John Stones to get past Wolves at Molineux. Wolves and Southampton are currently 19th and 20th respectively in the standings, and Guardiola talked up the quality of the Premier League after Saturday's win.

"Today it was not how they [Southampton] defend deep — it was how good they play with the ball, with the 'keeper and the movement," Guardiola said. "It's a good game to learn as a manager. I am going to learn a lot with Russell because they did really well. We were humble and accepted that they did really well. Last two games, Wolves and Southampton, are at the bottom of the league and, if this is the level, that shows how tough this Premier League is. They played really good. They didn't create many chances but it was an incredible effort to get the ball from us. We created chances that we couldn't convert but the result is good."

Arne Slot has presided over a record-breaking start to the season for Liverpool, with the Reds winning 11 of their 12 matches in all competitions, including seven out of eight in the league. Not all of those wins have been plain sailing, though, and Liverpool has actually been handed two of its toughest tests of the season by teams towards the bottom of the league. The Reds only narrowly beat Wolves themselves at the end of September, requiring a Mohamed Salah penalty to win 2-1 at Molineux, before again beating 18th-placed Crystal Palace by a one-goal margin one week later.

So, while it looks as though Slot and Guardiola will be battling it out for top spot in the league until the end of the season, there will be plenty of difficult matches between now and May, and whichever team racks up the most wins in these tight affairs could well end up hoisting the Premier League trophy in seven months' time.