The Chilean admits the free-scoring Reds will pose a stern test when the two sides meet at the Etihad Stadium, while he looks set to keep faith in goalkeeper Joe Hart

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini says his side will face a “very difficult” challenge when they face Luis Suarez’s Liverpool on Thursday.

The Etihad Stadium outfit emerged as 4-2 winners in a lively contest against Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday afternoon, moving into second place in the league table, just a point behind the Reds.

City host Brendan Rodgers’ table-topping side on Thursday and Pellegrini is anticipating a fierce battle between the two sides, though does not believe the fixture will decide the destination of the title.

When asked how tough taking on Liverpool and Suarez will be, the Chilean replied: “Very difficult, because Liverpool are a very good team and Suarez is in a very good moment.

“But I think that this Premier League, and we are only just finishing the first half, will not only be about Liverpool and Manchester City – five or six teams will fight it until the end.”

Joe Hart returned to the starting line-up in the Premier League for the first time since October, replacing Costel Pantilimon, who had played the previous seven matches, and Pellegrini says he was impressed enough with the England No.1 to keep him in the side for the game against Liverpool.

“We don’t know what will happen in the future,” said the 60-year-old. “Today Joe played and he did well. We will see what will happen. Every match we can play with a different starting XI. At the moment, Joe will continue playing in the next game.

“He deserves to continue. When I put Pantilimon in the starting XI, I spoke with Joe and he understood perfectly that he was not in a good moment. But he’s working very hard and I thought that he deserved another opportunity and he did well.”

Defeated Fulham boss Rene Meulensteen was pleased with his side’s performance against City, despite suffering their eighth defeat in nine games, and thinks Pellegrini’s charges will be in the thick of the title battle come the end of the season.

“If you look to the performances that we have put in in terms of energy, the positiveness we’ve had, we should never be in the position that we are,” said the Dutch coach.

“They [City] are definitely going to be strong contenders because of the squad that they have, the variety, the creativity.

“They’ve got strength up front, and a world-class striker in Sergio Aguero, who was not even playing.

“They’re a team that will always create chances and I am sure they will push for the title.”

The Northern Irishman was understandably delighted with his star striker, praising his consistency over the campaign, but the Uruguayan himself played down his role as captain

Brendan Rodgers hailed Luis Suarez after the Liverpool striker celebrated his new deal with two goals and an assist in the 3-1 victory over Cardiff City.

The Uruguayan scored a stunning volley to open the scoring, set up Raheem Sterling for the second goal and grabbed the third for himself before the break.

Suarez has now scored 19 goals this season and 29 in the calendar year, with his latest strikes helping Liverpool move top of the Premier League table.

And Rodgers is understandably delighted with the performances of his star player, who signed a new long-term contract at Anfield on Friday.

“He’s doing his job to a really high level; his job is to score create goals and he’s doing it consistently week-in, week-out,” the Liverpool manager told reporters.

“For me, having worked with him for a while, he’s got an in-built brain for football; his anticipation, where the ball is going to be, where it’s going to drop – he’s exceptional.

“He showed his selfless side, too, squaring for Raheem to score.”

Despite his side climbing to the league’s summit, Rodgers insisted the focus would remain on taking each game as it comes.

“We will let everyone else speak about ourselves,” he said. “We’re concentrating on improving our game and performance levels.

“People will talk us up, talk us down. It’s irrelevant for us. We’ll just concentrate on our game.”

Meanwhile, Suarez himself declared his delight at penning a new deal but played down the significance of his role as captain in Steven Gerrard’s absence.

“I am so happy with the new contract but I was totally focussed on today,” he said. “We played well first half and not so much in the second but it was important that we won.

“The responsibility is for the team to play together. We have one captain here, that is Stevie. We try our best without him. When we play together it is more important than who is captain.”

Fresh from penning a new long-term deal with the Reds, the Premier League’s top scorer demonstrated the growing maturity in his game by leading the first half demolition of Cardiff

COMMENT
By Jonathan Birchall at Anfield

We all knew inside Anfield that Luis Suarez would score today as he warmed up, laughing, ahead of Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat of Cardiff. That much was inevitable. But this – goal, assist, another goal – 19 in 12 games now, has long crossed the line of ridiculous.

The rest of the Premier League are going to have to knock their heads together and come up with something to stop him, though without some fundamental changes as to what constitutes fair play, you struggle to see what can be done. This, whisper it, got close to Ronaldo and Messi territory from the Uruguayan.

And he is sticking around for a good while yet. A long-term deal on Friday has made sure of that. Liverpool have their best player since Gerrard at his very peak tied down for the foreseeable and the top four is becoming less a dream than it is an expectation on the red half of Merseyside. You can hardly blame them, when the going is this good.

For Liverpool though, beyond the goals, the skill and that inevitable sense that they have a man who can dig them out of any hole, this goes much further than having a magician in their midst. Typically in the Christmas spirit, Suarez is spreading the joy. Those around him have been touched, if only a little, by exactly what he is bringing to their football club. As he flung the armband to Daniel Agger after the club’s vice-captain came off the bench, you saw a man quite clearly content with life at Anfield.

You would never have imagined it as he sunk his teeth into the arm of Branislav Ivanovic in April last year, but Suarez is becoming the perfect captain for Liverpool. Regardless of the scoreline, he wants his team-mates to keep on getting better. They are.

Jordan Henderson’s backheel for Suarez’s second summed it up. The former Sunderland man, who struggled in his debut season with the club last term, is playing with a freedom and confidence that had for too long been missing from his game. He is the in-form English midfielder as it stands, and that includes his currently injured club captain.

Alongside the 23-year-old, Coutinho has returned from a six-week absence earlier this season and slotted seamlessly into a side whose attacking prowess is, at times, fantastically exciting. Raheem Sterling, who kept up with Suarez to be gifted a goal by his captain in a moment of impressive selflessness to double the hosts’ lead, is returning to the type of exhilarating form that saw him called-up, perhaps prematurely, to Roy Hodgson’s England setup last term.

After crushing Tottenham 5-0 last week and a first-half performance of dominance this, it can be argued that Brendan Rodgers is showing Anfield its best football since Rafael Benitez left the club over three years ago. Suarez, as the number of ‘7’ flags quilting the Kop showed, is the figurehead. As he has so often looked to them after his many indiscretions, they look to him. His team-mates do as well.

For Cardiff, who in contrast to FSG’s ingenious move of tieing Suarez down ahead of the January window, are showing the world how not to run a football club. They battled superbly in the second half and showed their owner that however hard he tried to grind Malky Mackay down, the Scot has the backing of his players until the very end.

But today belonged to Luis Suarez.

Rodgers called it an “exceptional team performance” but that is increasingly the point. This is Suarez’s team, for now and for the future.