Manchester City showed they are not prepared to give up their Premier League crown without a fight as they came from a goal down to thrash rivals Liverpool 4-1.
Mo Salah had given Liverpool an early lead at the Etihad Stadium, and for a few moments the red half of north London rejoiced as it looked as though the title race could well be over by the end of the day. Defeat for City would have given Arsenal the chance to go eleven points clear with ten games remaining.
But Pep Guardiola’s side fought back brilliantly. A superbly worked move led to an equaliser from Julian Alvarez, and further goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Jack Grealish – who put in perhaps his best performance in a Manchester City shirt – buried Liverpool to give City renewed hope in the race for the Premier League crown.
Manchester City fans taunted Liverpool with chants of ‘ole!’ every time their players completed a pass in the final minutes of this game, a triumphant marker of just how one-sided this game eventually became in the second half.
City were riveting in spells before and after half time that simply blew their opponents away. Control in possession, clever switches of play, excellent in transition. By contrast Liverpool fell apart, bright in the early parts of the match but slow and sluggish as the game wore on. They could not cope.
Before the match the big news came in the absence of Erling Haaland who was left out of the squad completely due to injury. But City composed themselves after going a goal down, De Bruyne and Grealish ran the show and World Cup winner Alvarez proved he is good enough to lead the line for City in Holland’s absence as all three grabbed goals to make it 4-1, together with Gundogan’s 53rd minute strike.
City were simply too good for Liverpool, and Jurgen Klopp had a sorry look on his face for the majority of the second half as he contemplated what could be a long and tough battle to secure Champions League football next season.
The defeat is Liverpool’s third in a row, after losing at Bournemouth and Real Madrid before the international break, and their eighth away defeat of the campaign. It leaves them sixth in the table and seven points behind Spurs in fourth, though they do have a game in hand.
For a team that was expected to compete for the title this season it has been a largely horrendous campaign for Liverpool. A few notable wins aside, the Reds have been terrible in several games in all competitions – from the 4-1 beating they took at Napoli to the 3-0 defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion in the FA Cup and several unexpected Premier League reversals to teams like Leeds, Brentford and Wolves.
Chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ rang down from the stands from City fans aimed at Klopp, and while his position is surely secure, it is mainly thanks to his achievements in past years rather than performances this season.
After a summer spend that included €80 million on Darwin Nunez, Liverpool are underachieving in the league dramatically. Any other manager would surely have their position more heavily scrutinised.
Klopp has plenty of credit in the bank but some of the players may be on borrowed time at Anfield. Liverpool made four changes in the 70th minute including Mo Salah and Andrew Robertson off, a move that almost felt like an admission of defeat from Liverpool’s manager. The likes of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, set to leave on a free transfer in the summer, and Konstantinos Tsimikas came on, and minutes later the Reds meekly conceded a fourth goal as Grealish finished them off.
But this game was about the class and style of Manchester City. The win makes it seven in a row for Guardiola’s team who, while still showing some cracks at times like in the first half, are starting to gain momentum.
In the second half City played with a swagger and a confidence that was too much for Liverpool, who floundered out of possession and conceded big spaces in transition.
Grealish’s growing influence was a key factor in the victory, the man who signed the most lucrative boot deal of any British footballer in history last month celebrating his reported new £10million-a-season commercial deal in style with a brilliant all-round performance.
His tackle on Salah in the first half summed up an energetic display, a crucial intervention to stop Liverpool going 2-0 up that was pivotal in the match. From there Grealish went straight up the other end to assist Alvarez, a sign of his huge influence on this key win.
There are still question marks about City’s strength in depth and ability to catch a rampant Arsenal in the long run. Without Haaland, City’s bench showed signs of a lack of depth: Cole Palmer and Bernardo Silva were the only real attacking options and the likes of Sergio Gomez, Rico Lewis and Maximo Perrone are far from the finished article.
John Stones also took up an unfamiliar position in the centre of midfield, another sign of City’s lack of options after a long list of departures over the past two transfer windows.
But Pep Guardiola has his team focused and well-drilled. On the evidence of this performance, the hunger and class is still there to keep going and give Arsenal a real battle for the title.