Manchester City Make Title Statement Against Liverpool

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The Premier League was back in action this past weekend with one of their newest rivalries in recent years. Manchester City hosted Liverpool for their second time in the league after Liverpool took the first matchup at Anfield. This contest was not so close after Mohamed Salah got the Reds the early lead, City scored four unanswered goals and completely dominate their opponent.

Perhaps the biggest news going into this game was that the league’s leading goal scorer, Erling Haaland, was not fit enough to make the squad at all and was forced to watch from the stands. So, Pep Guardiola placed his trust at the feet of Julian Alvarez by giving him the chance to impress the home crowd in such a massive game. 

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Manchester City were the early aggressors as Rodri fired a shot right at Alison from the top of the box. Riyad Mahrez also fired a short free-kick inches away from the left post at the fifteen minute mark. Seconds later, from the goal kick that was generated from Mahrez’s free-kick, Liverpool were quickly off on the counterattack. Trent Alexander-Arnold played a lofted pass over the City defenders into the path of Diogo Jota. After almost getting the ball taken, Jota leaves the ball in front of an oncoming Salah that made no mistake in placing the ball in the upper corner past a helpless Ederson.

No one would have thought that this shot would end up being Liverpool’s only shot on target. City would continue their dominance through a shot over the bar from Riyad Mahrez, and even though it missed, you could feel that City wasn’t far from a goal. A goal that finally came in the twenty-seventh minute when Ilkay Gundogan played Jack Grealish in behind the Liverpool defense down the left-hand side. Grealish wisely picked up his head and played a low pass across the face of the goal for Julián Álvarez to tap it home and bring the game level. 

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The match stayed level through halftime, but just second into the second half, City would take the lead through Kevin De Bruyne. Alvarez got the chance started by playing a long ball towards the right corner for Riyad Mahrez to have all the time to control it, look up, and pick out Kevin De Bruyne in front of the goal and tap City's second goal. 

Alvarez was again involved in City’s third goal when he received a pass inside the box which he quickly shot on goal. Alvarez’s shot was blocked by Alexander-Arnold on the goal line, but the rebound fell to the feet of Gundogan standing on the 6 yard line and all he had to do was shoot it to the open side of the goal that no one was standing in front of. Apart from Alvarez creating havoc for the Liverpool defense, Jack Grealish had a quietly impressive game as well.

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Grealish would finally get some recognition for his efforts in the seventy-third minute. The Englishman played a nice one-two combination with De Bruyne down the right side and around Alexander-Arnold. Grealish got the return pass inside the box and passed his shot perfectly in between the outstretched hand of Alison and a lunging Virgil van Dijk. The final nail in the coffin that saw many Liverpool supporters get up from their seats and start making their way to the exits.

Almost a flawless game, City is able to keep the pressure on Arsenal at the top of the league, but only maintaining their five point advantage after they too won their game 4-1 over Leeds United. The loss for Liverpool means they now are 8 points away from the top 4 and qualifying for the Champions League. It doesn’t get much easier for the Reds, as they now will travel to London to face a new Chelsea team after they just fired Graham Potter. Then they will host a first-place Arsenal at home on Easter Sunday.