Manchester City striker Erling Haaland “doesn’t mind” what Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold says as he “doesn’t know” how it feels to win the Treble.
The Reds defender said that Liverpool’s trophies under Jurgen Klopp “will mean more” than City’s under Pep Guardiola.
The Premier League leaders are at home on Sunday to City, who won the league, FA Cup and Champions League last term.
“I’ve been here one year and I won the Treble and it was quite a nice feeling,” Haaland told Sky Sports.
“I don’t think he knows exactly this feeling. So, that’s what I felt last season. It was quite nice.
“If he wants to say that, OK,” added Haaland. “They can talk as much as they want, or he can talk as much as he wants. I don’t know why he does that but I don’t mind.”
Guardiola and Klopp have won every major honour since taking charge in 2016 and 2015, respectively, although City have lifted 14 major trophies to Liverpool’s seven.
City have been charged with more than 100 breaches of financial rules from 2009 to 2018, with the Premier League saying a date for the hearing has been set.
Research by the CIES Football Observatory says that, from 2014 to 2023, Liverpool have generated higher losses through player transfers (249m euros/£213m) than City (59m euros/£51m).
In a recent interview with FourFourTwo, Alexander-Arnold said: “Looking back on this era, although they’ve won more titles than us and have probably been more successful, our trophies will mean more to us and our fanbase because of the situations at both clubs financially.”
‘It’s pretty certain how much it meant to all of us’
Last season’s Treble success came 24 years after Manchester City spent the 1998-99 season playing in League One, the third tier of English football, and the Blues were in the Championship, the second tier, as recently as 2001-02.
When asked about Alexander-Arnold’s comments by BBC Radio Manchester, City defender Ruben Dias said: “I think it’s pretty certain between us, between our fans, how much it meant to all of us.
“At the end of the day you can only have certain emotions if you actually win stuff. A Treble is a feeling you can only know how it feels when you actually do it.”
He added: “I think in a club like Man City and my previous club [Benfica], our greatness will be shown in a way that these comments don’t affect us. We know what we’ve done, we know what we’ve conquered, we know what we’re going for in what’s to come. We don’t do it for anyone else, we do it for ourselves.
“Other people’s success is deserved for their own achievements. What we focus on is ourselves. That’s the way to move forward and that’s the way to be big, a big club – not trying to comment on other people’s success and trying to make it bigger or smaller depending on how convenient it is for you.”
‘There’s so many who can win the Premier League’
Before Sunday’s game, which Alexander-Arnold is set to miss with a knee injury, City are one point behind Liverpool with both teams having 11 games left.
When City hosted Liverpool in the reverse fixture in November, the game finished 1-1 after Alexander-Arnold’s late equaliser cancelled out Haaland’s first-half opener – one of 29 goals the Norway striker, 23, has scored this season in all competitions.
“It’s going to be a great game,” Haaland added. “Liverpool are top of the league, so they’ve been the best this season so far. So we have to try to play at our best.
“I think City-Liverpool is a really special game in general, so it’s going to be a special game and it’s going to be a really important game.”
City’s following league game will be on 31 March at home to Arsenal, who were their closet rivals last season and are currently just one point behind the Blues in third.
“As last year, I think we were in a quite an interesting title race,” said Haaland. “Maybe someone even put us a bit away from the title race at one point.
“I think that’s also what’s so nice about the Premier League, that there’s so many who are so good, who can win the Premier League. The last [three] years it’s been Manchester City, and we’re going to try to do it again. It’s not going to be easy, but we are good.”
