Micah Richards jokingly told Jamie Carragher to "behave himself" after the Liverpool icon claimed the Manchester City legend said the Premier League title race was over.
Richards was speaking after his former employers suffered a shock 3-2 defeat to Antonio Conte's Tottenham at the Etihad on Saturday evening.
The result leaves City just six points ahead of title rivals Liverpool - and Jurgen Klopp's side have a game in hand on Pep Guardiola's defending champions.
The Reds defeated relegation favourites Norwich 3-1 at Anfield on Saturday afternoon thanks to goals from Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and new signing Luis Diaz.
Speaking after the game, Sky Sports presenter Kelly Cates asked Richards if he felt differently about the Premier League title race following Saturday's results.
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The ex-defender replied: "Well, everyone kept asking me... it's never over."
To which Carragher joked: "You said it was over weeks ago!"
After laughing, Richards responded: "Behave yourself, Jamie!"
The former England international went on to explain: "When I was at City and we was ahead [in 2011-12] - and then Man United went ahead - the pressure was off.
"You want to be behind fighting because when you're in that top spot, you keep looking over your shoulder... and we only won it on goal difference.
"But I just think that'll give Liverpool a lot of confidence that today."
City and Liverpool are poised to meet at the Etihad on April 9 and Richards believes that game will be a pivotal moment in the title race.
"The title race is in Liverpool’s favour. If they can come to the Etihad and win, it’s game on," said Richards. "This is why we love the Premier League."
Saturday evening's result at the Etihad leaves seventh-place Tottenham just four points behind Manchester United in fourth with two games in hand.
West Ham, Wolves and Arsenal are also in the hunt for Champions League football.
"It's a massive day for the top-four race but also the title race," added Carragher. "It's a tantalising prospect, with Liverpool still to come to the Etihad."
City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan - who captained his team against Tottenham on Saturday evening - believes the defeat is a "wake-up call" for Guardiola's side.
"We kind of thought we’d rescued it," said the Germany international at full-time. "If you look at the whole game we deserved to win.
"But football is sometimes crazy and today we made easy mistakes. We gave them the ball to have possibilities to counter and that made us lose the game.
"They were also ruthless in their finishing up front. We had a lot of chances and the possibility to score a few more goals, but we gave them the chances they had too easily.
"It didn’t feel like a bad game from us. They defended so, so deep, particularly towards the end of the first half. It’s not so easy
"Sometimes you have these kind of games and you need to learn from it. It’s a wake-up call for us. There’s still a long way to go.
"It’s not a situation that we’re not used to. We know from recent years that Liverpool are always contenders. They’re always up there.
"We know they’ll try everything to make our lives as difficult as possible. The good thing is that they still need to come here to the Etihad, but there are still many games to go."
