Manuel Pellegrini believed that it was ‘'very important'’ Manchester City beat Liverpool following a 2-1 victory at the Etihad Stadium.
Liverpool was about to go into Christmas top of the table, but ended Boxing Day down in fourth position after sudden defeat at Etihad Stadium.
Philippe Coutinho's 24th-minute goal was cancelled out by Vincent Kompany's header before Alvaro Negredo scored the winner in added time at the end of the first half.
The victory raised City up to second in the table, still a point off top spot, but Pellegrini mentioned the importance of not losing to Liverpool.
"It was very important because Liverpool was the best team in the Premier League on top of the table before the match," said the City manager.
"I'm very, very happy with the response. It's not easy when you face such a difficult team, especially on the counter attack.
"When you're losing 1-0, it's very easy to have space for them, but today I think we defended very well." City, now is about to fulfillPellegrini's aim of reaching top spot by new yearagainst Crystal Palace on Saturday.
He said: "At least we are near. We will see what happens but this is just half of the Premier League (gone). "We have all the second half and that will be very close - five or six teams (competing) for the title."
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