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LIVERPOOL -- Pep Guardiola believes his Manchester City players will learn from the 4-3 defeat at Liverpool that ended their unbeaten start to the season. Guardiola, who had previously said he did not believe City would stay unbeaten all season, said his players had lost control in nine frantic minutes when they conceded three goals as Anfield ramped up the atmosphere. City remain 15 points clear at the top of the Premier League, although that lead will be cut to 12 if second-placed Manchester United win against Stoke City on Monday. "My first words are congratulations to Liverpool for the victory. It was a good game," he told a news conference. "They started well. We lost a lot of balls because they are so aggressive without the ball and we had problems controlling that. "After that we started to play much better and we have good chances, especially in the second half we started good -- until the goal from [Roberto] Firmino. "After that we lost a bit of control. We were involved in the environment of Anfield, for many reasons. "You have to try to be stable and there are good lessons, especially for the knockout stages of the Champions League." But asked if the atmosphere had been a contributing factor to the defeat, he said: "No. We tried to play but with the mistakes it sometimes happens. You have to give credit to the opponents. Sometimes you think about our mistakes but sometimes you can think the other ones they are good and they did it." Guardiola again refused to be drawn on the potential signing of Alexis Sanchez, who was left out of Arsenal's squad at Bournemouth. Sanchez now appears to have a choice between City and United, but Guardiola played down talk of a deal. He said: "He's an Arsenal player, so I don't talk about the players that aren't in my team now. "We have the squad, I don't know what's going to happen in this transfer window -- we are going to finish with these players or if we can buy someone because we have four competitions and a lot of games and we're going to try." City have been linked with a move with a defender and suffered another blow when Fabian Delph limped off in the first half. "[Delph] will be out for a while. It's his knee," Guardiola said. They are already short of options at left-back, with Benjamin Mendy ruled out for at least three months with a cruciate knee ligament injury.
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