Pep Guardiola admits Liverpool's record start is helping his Manchester City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has said Liverpool can help him guard against complacency and prevent his younger players believing their own publicity.

Guardiola raised the prospect of his side matching last season's 106-goal haul, after the 4-0 win at West Ham, and said that Liverpool's own record- breaking start to the season was, in some ways, a help.

'This is best start ever for Liverpool in their huge history. That means it will be so tough for us, spite of [what we are achieving. It will mean we don't forget what we have to do. If people want to do what nobody has done in the last ten years [and retain the title] then we have to accept the challenge.

Liverpool's 33 points is, indeed, their highest in the Premier League era after 13 games. Their mere five goals conceded is their lowest ever after 13 games of a league season, in any era.

City's dominance, in a win which maintains a two-point lead at the top, resembled that of a home match, though Guardiola still insisted the side were below par and lacked intensity.

'We didn't find the right spots to attack them,' he said. 'Every player needed four touches to give a pass. In the second half it was better. Players come back from international break and are tired.'

Guardiola gave an insight into the intense competition for places, describing how when Riyad Mahrez plays well, he takes Leroy Sane's place and that Sane can relegate Mahrez to the bench, as he did on Saturday.

But complacency is the enemy for younger players, he insisted. 'I'm a little bit older [than them] but when players read and listen to comments about how they are fantastic,' he said. 

'This is dangerous they can be confused. We push each other a lot. The players push us. We demand many, many things between each other. It is the only way.

'We try to tell them what is not right because they demand that. We have to be more than last season, not in front, not behind them but beside them [driving them on.] We have to there.' The biggest threat to City's earlier ascendency is 'to believe we cannot do better,' he said. 'Today we were lucky, in some moments.