Erling Haaland maintained Manchester City's six-point deficit in the Premier League title race with a late penalty against Liverpool on Sunday evening
10:09, 09 Feb 2026
Wayne Rooney on Match of the Day
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Wayne Rooney on Match of the Day(Image: BBC - Match of the Day)
Wayne Rooney has fired Arsenal a warning following Manchester City's dramatic 2-1 win over Liverpool. Erling Haaland fired Pep Guardiola's side to victory at Anfield on Sunday evening as the visitors came from behind to keep the Premier League title race alive.
Dominik Szoboszlai broke the deadlock with a superb free-kick, smashing the ball past Gianluigi Donnarumma from range. Bernardo Silva pulled one back a few moments later before Haaland converted a penalty in the dying embers of stoppage time.
Rayan Cherki put the third and final nail in the coffin, but his long-range effort was chalked off by the Video Assistant Referee. Manchester City salvaged their six-point deficit at the death, piling the pressure on the Gunners ahead of the run-in.
Speaking on the BBC’s Match of the Day, Rooney urged the Arsenal players to 'focus on themselves' after a 'deflating' result in Merseyside. The Manchester United legend said: "It’s an important one for Manchester City today.
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"It’s a tough place to go, Anfield. I thought Liverpool were really good [in the] second half, City were really good first half – then City have gone a goal down and dug in to get the three points.
"If they slipped nine points adrift of Arsenal, it would have been very difficult for them to win the league. But the confidence and belief that will give them is huge.
"Arsenal can only focus on themselves. I’m sure they will have had an eye on the game, because if City lose, it does become difficult for them. But Arsenal just need to focus on doing their own job.
"Having been there, it is very difficult to do that because the Arsenal players would have been watching that game at home and thinking Man City are slipping up here. It would have been deflating, and you can waste a lot of energy hoping your rivals are going to slip up."
Rooney believes Haaland could strike fear into Arsenal. The former England international continued: "I thought it was a bit of a strange performance from Erling Haaland, a performance I’ve never really seen from him.
"Normally it’s about his power and pace and being ruthless in front of goal, but he was a bit deeper today and was trying to create chances for Man City rather than score them.
"Then he creates the equaliser and scores the really high-pressure penalty which keeps them in the title race really. It’s his first goal at Anfield for Man City and you could see the relief in his face.
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"The confidence that will give him now will be scary for Arsenal in the next few weeks. I think it’s been a confidence issue with Haaland because no matter what level you’re playing at if you’re not scoring week in week out it does get to you.
"Maybe it was getting to him a bit but that goal will raise his confidence levels again."
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