Jamie Carragher believes that Manchester City’s Premier League title defence is over following their fourth straight defeat in the competition at Anfield on Sunday.

With 11 points now separating City and leaders Liverpool, Carragher believes that there is now no way back for Pep Guardiola’s team and is urging Liverpool manager Arne Slot to rest first-team players from all domestic cup competition to prioritise regaining the league title.

“This season, Manchester City will not be winning the Premier League,” said Carragher. “I don’t think there is any way back.

“It is almost a mini-crisis for Manchester City, and I think it’s reminiscent of Liverpool two years ago. I actually think Man City might have a fight on the hands for the top four.

“I actually look at Arsenal and Chelsea and the way they’re looking right now… I think it may be difficult for Man City to finish above them if they don’t go into the market in January.”

Carragher did, however, still back Guardiola in holding up six fingers to fans inside Anfield after Liverpool supporters had earlier chanted “you’re getting sacked in the morning” during their 2-0 win.

“He’s putting the six fingers up and rightly so,” said Carragher. “I think he is just hitting home, ‘Don’t take for granted what we’ve done’. Maybe just sending a message to the hierarchy above him, to his own supporters there.”

With City dropping to fifth, Carragher now believes that Arsenal and Chelsea could be the main threat to Liverpool.

“He [Guardiola] needs to buy players. If he can do that in January who knows, but he may need to wait until the end of the season to fix it.

“I look at the energy Arsenal have got and the energy the young players at Chelsea have got and I think it might be difficult for City to finish above them.” Carragher has also warned leaders Liverpool over the danger of competing on too many fronts.

As well as leading the Premier League by nine points, Liverpool are top of the new enlarged Champions League group following their 2-0 win against Real Madrid and will face Southampton in the League Cup quarter final later this month.

“Last season, and a couple of years before that, Liverpool at this stage of the season, they were talking about four trophies,” Carragher told Sky Sports. “You cannot deliberately lose games or not do as well as you can – you’re Liverpool. But, if I was giving the manager any advice, I would not be playing first team players in domestic cup competitions. The reason no one has ever won four trophies in a season is because it’s almost impossible. That could be a problem for them. If they could just concentrate on the league and the Champions League, I think they are going to take some stopping.”

Carragher also had a joke at Roy Keane’s expense after Virgil van Dijk said that he was surprised that the Liverpool legend had not awarded the man-of-the-match award to Mohamed Salah.

“I’ll see him in the car park,” said Carragher of Van Dijk, in reference to Keane’s furious row with an Ipswich supporter last week. Carragher had himself criticised Salah for publicly expressing disappointment over his contract situation at Liverpool and how he thinks that he is now likely to leave next year. Van Dijk is also out of contract next summer.

With former striker Daniel Sturridge urging Liverpool to “show me the money” in respect of Salah, Carragher insisted that the club must remain true to a transfer strategy that has enabled them to compete with City more consistently than any other rival in the past decade.

“I’ve got no problem with Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk – they are two of the greatest players who have played for Liverpool,” said Carragher. “Let’s say there is a rule, anyone over 30 only gets a certain length of contract, you have to move the dial for players like that. I’m not saying he shouldn’t get a two-year deal, I’m not saying he shouldn’t be on big money.

“[But] this club is not built on giving people what they want. That’s where the success of the club has come from — being ahead of the game, buying Mo Salah for £40 million when nobody else in the Premier League even looked at him. I’m saying, ‘Liverpool: keep doing what you’re doing’. All I’m asking for is Mo Salah not to come out after every game he scores a goal and talk about his own situation. Virgil van Dijk is in the same situation and handled it brilliantly.”

Keane said that Liverpool should be more worried about what Salah is doing on the pitch, where he has so far scored 11 times in 13 games. “Salah did his talking on the pitch – take more notice of that than the odd quote or tantrum,” said Keane.

Micah Richards, the former Manchester City defender, said that Guardiola’s team, who have won the last four Premier League titles, had been destroyed at Anfield.

“Everything looks like they are massively low on confidence,” he said. “The first half could have been three- or four-nil. If we are being honest, Liverpool absolutely battered them. Its a shadow of the team I have witnessed.”