Pep Guardiola qualifies as the favorite of Liverpool as Man City loses Fernandinho and Aymeric Laporte following an injury

Pep Guardiola believes Liverpool will remain the favorite in the Premier League race. The manager of Manchester City expects his team to "suffer" without the injured duo Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho in the coming weeks.

City beat Sunday Chelsea 4-3 on penalties at Wembley on Sunday to retain its EFL Cup title and preserve the hope of a quadruple.

Earlier in the day, Liverpool regained the lead in the Premier League standings with a goalless draw against Manchester United – a match in which Roberto Firmino was injured.

The city also suffered injuries on Sunday, while Laporte was forced to leave at half-time, while Fernandinho was eliminated in the 90th minute.

Guardiola revealed after the match that the two players would miss the coming weeks due to injuries, including the knockout stages of the Champions League City vs. Schalke.

"Laporte felt something in the last action of the first half and Fernandinho felt something muscular, so I think the weeks are going to be exhausted," Guardiola told reporters at Wembley.

"It's a contest [the Carabao Cup] here in England. Usually there is a cup competition, here there are two. At the beginning of the season, it's an opportunity to give people rhythm and minutes. But for the next competitions, it's so difficult.

"Overtime … two and a half important players will be away for a while, but that's normal, a lot of games, we're asking a lot of these players, look at United today." Not exclusive with Manchester City.We ask a lot of players, the fields are not good, the weather, the ball is not even good, so people fall.

"I am always impressed to see how they can always play without any injury, but eventually it happens.There are fewer games in other countries.We play against Schalke with important players who do not play, but I trust our team, a solution. "

When asked when he had watched Liverpool's match against United, Guardiola replied: "I did not look too much, I knew that there had been three injured, but I did not really look at it.

"We're closer, they're still in the lead, they're still the favorites, but do not think too much about them, let's get the players involved and focus on what we need to play: we play on Wednesday and then at 12:30 in Bournemouth. "