Benjamin Mendy sent Pep Guardiola into a spin ahead of Manchester City’s clash with Chelsea by claiming that he is in Hong Kong.

The French star has been in Barcelona recuperating from a knee cartilage injury, but posted a video on social media claiming to be at Hong Kong International Airport.

Informed of the news at his pre-match press conference on Friday, Guardiola looked shocked: ‘In Hong Kong? F***, is he?’ exclaimed the City boss.

Manchester City’s injured defender Benjamin Mendy sent Pep Guardiola into a spin by claiming in an Instagram stories post that he was in Hong Kong instead of Barcelona

Mendy, who has been in Barcelona for recuperation, appeared to be in a taxi in the post

The revelation promoted his manager Pep Guardiola to swear during his press conference

‘I don’t know. I have to understand Instagram. Really I don’t know. Yesterday he’s in Barcelona. Hong Kong, definitely not.’ 

Mendy later tweeted to confirm that he was only joking but not before Sky had to apologise for broadcasting Guardiola swearing on air.

Mendy later replied to a tweet saying he wasn’t really in Hong Kong and it was all a joke

City left-back Mendy has seen his game time limited of late after suffering the injury

The City boss confirmed that Mendy will miss the Chelsea game as he recovers from his latest knee problem.

‘He’s injured, it’s not easy – meniscus,’ said Guardiola. ‘He needs to re-adapt. He has to handle the effort we are putting on him – he has to be careful.’

Jurgen Klopp is paying no attention to the increased scrutiny on Liverpool and insists he is comfortable dealing with the challenge of delivering the club’s first title since 1990.

Liverpool were knocked off top spot for the first time in 52 days on Wednesday, when Manchester City beat Everton 2-0 at Goodison Park, but they can reclaim the lead on Saturday if they avoid defeat by Bournemouth.

This has been Liverpool’s worst run of the campaign — they have won two of their last five Premier League fixtures — but it has coincided with their worst run of injuries; Klopp confirmed Joe Gomez will be absent for ‘four to six weeks’ after undergoing successful surgery on Monday to repair his broken leg. 

Jurgen Klopp is paying no attention to the increased scrutiny on his Liverpool team at present

This is Liverpool’s worst run of the campaign with just two wins in their last five league games

Klopp is aware that the tone of the narrative around Liverpool has changed over the past fortnight but he is not flustered and is only concentrating on getting his team firing once more. 

‘The funny thing about that is I didn’t read it, I didn’t watch it and I still know it!’ said Klopp. ‘You feel it, with the questions you get asked, the messages I get even from friends. Something obviously changed in their view, but it was always clear that it would happen. It’s not important when it happens, it’s that it can happen.

‘It’s normal. It was kind of predictable, and if you want to be top of the table and a champion at the end of the season, you have to show in situations like that, and there are worse situations, real passion, real desire, you have to fight. You cannot come through with passing a little bit around, you have to go through.

‘I got a message this week, another sign that people think I need help — I don’t need help, thank you very much, I’m fine! — in the last 10 games, City dropped 12 points and we dropped seven. I didn’t know that. Is it interesting for me? Not really, but the view from outside is completely different.

‘Then it was something that City lost three outside the top six teams, we drew twice. That’s the world outside, and we live in that world. I know that people are confronted with things like this, the players are too. The only tool we really have to sort our situation is football, passion, a proper fight, being aggressive in the most legal way. Be hard, put your foot in.’

A frustrating draw at West Ham allowed reigning champions Manchester City to overtake them

Pep Guardiola’s side duly obliged when they beat Everton 2-0 at Goodison Park in midweek

Klopp sees no difference in the situation to 12 months ago when Chelsea were breathing down their necks for the final Champions League spot and he added: ‘That’s what we will do, that’s what we did last year in a similar situation with a different target, where Chelsea were chasing us like crazy.

‘We wanted to go to the Champions League, we had a pretty small squad in that situation and we had to play Champions League, all that stuff, and win each Premier League game, which is a difficult job to do. We are used to that, now we have to show we can do it still.’

There could be some good news in Liverpool’s line-up with Trent Alexander-Arnold, Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson all making excellent progress following injuries.

‘Trent trained for the first time,’ said Klopp. ‘He didn’t mention any issues, any problems, so after three-and-a-half weeks, first session, we need to see what we do with that.

‘Jordan trained as well, first time, it was not that long a break but it was a muscle issue. We need to have another look today. Gini trained, completely normal. That’s how it is. I don’t know in the moment, we have to see.

‘Dejan Lovren is not available. Obviously we work on the Bayern game, but we don’t know exactly.’