Jurgen Klopp couldn't help but smile after Manchester City "killed" several journalists' questions before his post-match press conference could begin.
Liverpool boss Klopp was preparing to take questions from the media after seeing his side beat Watford 2-0 in Saturday's early kick-off in the Premier League, with the win taking the Reds to the top of the table after goals from Diogo Jota and Fabinho, the second a late penalty.
But with City heading to Turf Moor to face Burnley on Saturday afternoon, it was always very likely that Liverpool would quickly be knocked off the top of the league by a side who had been 14 points clear of the Reds in mid-January.
And sure enough, after Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring for the visitors just five minutes in it was clear which was the game was going to go.
A smiling Klopp had clearly been informed about the goal when he sat down to face the media, saying: "So City have already killed one of your questions huh?"
When Klopp did eventually face some questions, he agreed that the Reds' victory had been more about getting the three points rather than an impressive display.
"Yeah, of course, no doubt about that," he said.
"These games can go either way; if you score early, really early, then just get in kind of a flow, it can go in one direction.
"But it’s not very likely, it’s really unlikely that after the international break you see the best game of the season. So we had to work through this game against a very well-organised Watford side. Roy [Hodgson] is doing a really incredible job.
"After [going] 1-0 down, nothing changed, going for counter-attacks. When the players came on, going for counter-attacks. It makes it uncomfortable.
"We had in the first half obviously the one scary moment when Ali [Alisson] had this incredible save. But we scored our goal, nice, and kept it controlled, which is the most important thing. Scoring the second was obviously kind of a relief. Winning the game is all we wanted, the boys delivered and so now we can carry on."
On the title race, he added: "No, you can’t give an inch.
"But it’s nothing to do with being on top of the table, I didn’t think about that in the moment, I was just happy to win the game and having now 72 points.
"Hopefully. To keep it a title race we have to win our football games, otherwise it will be really tricky. And the next Premier League game obviously is a big one, we do not hide from that. It’s all good.
"But now we have a Champions League game to play, which is as important, and three days’ time to prepare that. Then we go from there."
