MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City laid down a marker in the Premier League title race with an impressive 3-0 win over reigning champions Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Erling Haaland saw an early penalty saved before giving City a deserved lead midway through the first half with a well-taken header. Virgil van Dijk thought he’d equalized only for his header to be ruled out because Andrew Robertson was deemed to be offside in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma.
City made the most of their first-half dominance when Nico González got it to 2-0 just before halftime with a shot from outside the penalty area that deflected in off Van Dijk, and Jérémy Doku rounded off his man-of-the-match performance with a spectacular goal in the second half.
The result moves City up to second in the table as they closed the gap on leaders Arsenal to four points after Mikel Arteta’s side had to settle for a draw against Sunderland on Saturday. — Rob Dawson
City’s winning week reveals how good they are
It has been hard to tell where City are at after a mixed start to the season, but this week has revealed that they’re actually pretty good.
Pep Guardiola’s team have seen off AFC Bournemouth, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool in the space of seven days. More than that, all three performances were relatively convincing.
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The first half against Liverpool was maybe their best 45 minutes of the season. It might have been their best 45 minutes since the 2023-24 season.
Guardiola has been careful to play down expectations after a miserable campaign in 2024-25, but they’re keeping up with the UEFA Champions League pacesetters at the top of the league phase table; sit second in the Premier League, four points behind leaders Arsenal; and have an EFL Cup quarterfinal to come against Brentford next month.
It’s a case of so far, so good.
There’s a long way to go this season — something Guardiola pointed out himself at his news conference Friday. All City can do is put themselves in a position to challenge for trophies in the new year, and they’re well on their way to doing that.
Liverpool might not be at the level that saw them crowned champions six months ago, but it was still a statement win. — Dawson
Liverpool watching rivals disappear out of sight
Perhaps the most fitting encapsulation of Liverpool’s tumultuous season so far was provided in the second half at the Etihad, when the home supporters turned their backs on the action and did the iconic “Poznan” celebration.
For Arne Slot’s side, the sight of its longstanding rival basking in such an emphatic win represents a new nadir in a campaign that has lurched from the sublime to the ridiculous. After a promising week in which the Reds beat both Aston Villa and Real Madrid, Sunday’s clash against a resurgent City simply proved a bridge too far.
Ultimately, this was a game lost in the first half, with Liverpool unable to replicate the quality and intensity that helped them see off Madrid so impressively in midweek. Slot might well point to the fact that fortune did not favor his side; City’s early penalty (which was well saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili) seemed like a harsh decision, while Van Dijk’s controversial disallowed goal — which would have made it 1-1 in the first half — undoubtedly swung the momentum in City’s favor.
Still, the fact of the matter is that Liverpool have not been good enough this season. After 11 league games, they have already suffered five defeats — more than they did in the entire last term — and have now lost every game in which they have conceded the first goal.
Defeat to City leaves Liverpool four points behind Guardiola’s side and eight behind leaders Arsenal. If the Reds cannot find a way to recover the mentality that helped them romp to the title last season, they might quickly find that their two biggest rivals are completely out of sight. — Beth Lindop
Doku looks consistent — and unstoppable
What a performance from the Man City winger. He caused chaos down City’s left all afternoon and capped off a wonderful display with a fantastic goal.
Conor Bradley looked comfortable against Vinícius Júnior on Tuesday, but he couldn’t handle Doku. The Belgium international won the early penalty that was missed by Haaland, and every time he got the ball, there was a feeling inside the stadium that something was about to happen.
At one point in the first half, he was having so much success against Bradley that Slot ordered Ryan Gravenberch to double up. Nothing Liverpool tried seemed to work, and it was only when Doku was substituted at 73 minutes that the torment stopped.
His goal, cutting in from the left and curling a right-footed shot into the far corner, was so good that when it was replayed on the big screens there were oohs and aahs from the City fans.
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Doku has shown flashes of his ability since arriving from Stade Rennais in 2023. This season, though, he’s doing it consistently.
His ability in one-on-one situations is so good that when he’s playing like this, he’s almost unstoppable. — Dawson
Liverpool defense might be their undoing in 2025-26
As Liverpool closed in on their mightily impressive victory over Real Madrid on Tuesday, Bradley’s name boomed around the stadium. The home supporters inside Anfield were keen to serenade the right back after he had delivered arguably the most impressive display of his career, defending superbly to keep the tricky Vinícius at bay.
Unfortunately for Liverpool, Bradley could not match that level of performance against City and was part of a defense that struggled to contain the outstanding Doku, particularly in the first half. Alongside him, Ibrahima Konaté also endured a tough afternoon and was outjumped by Haaland for the hosts’ opener, while Robertson was replaced by Milos Kerkez early in the second half.
After keeping back-to-back clean sheets against Villa and Madrid, this was a reminder that Liverpool still have work to do defensively if they hope to salvage anything from this season. The return of goalkeeper Alisson Becker after the international break should help breed confidence among the back line, but the Reds’ leaky defense looks like it could very well be their undoing this term. — Lindop
In top form, Haaland is rewriting the record books
Missing an early penalty in a big game might have had a negative impact on a lot of strikers.
Not Haaland. He saw his ninth-minute spot kick saved by Mamardashvili, but it didn’t stop the Norway international from making his mark.
Matheus Nunes was clever in delaying his cross from the right just enough so that Robertson turned his back. The ball into the box was quality. After that, though, it was all about Haaland.
He peeled off toward the back post and rose above Konaté to head the ball back across the goal and into the corner. In many ways, it was a typical Haaland goal.
He wasn’t the star against Liverpool, but he still got his 19th goal of the season and his 14th in 11 Premier League games. The 25-year-old has also moved to 99 Premier League goals in just 108 appearances.
Those are scarcely believable numbers.
Alan Shearer, the top goal scorer in Premier League history, needed 124 games to reach 100 goals. With Haaland in form like this, it’s highly unlikely he’ll need another 16 games to reach the 100 club. Another record is about to go. — Dawson
Salah’s best days look to be behind him
If it was against City at the Etihad last season that Mohamed Salah enjoyed one of his finest outings in a Liverpool shirt, then it was on the same turf this term that the forward’s recent decline was laid bare.
In February, the Egypt international scored Liverpool’s opener and assisted Dominik Szoboszlai for their second en route to a victory that saw them make a giant stride toward the title. On Sunday, however, Salah toiled up against the prodigious Nico O’Reilly as Liverpool slumped to yet another miserable defeat.
To the 33-year-old’s credit, he battled until the end, even after spurning a great opportunity late in the second half. But, despite having scored in both of Liverpool’s past two league games (against Brentford and Aston Villa), he looked like a shadow of his former self against City, failing to hit the target with any of his three shots.
Salah has shown enough in recent outings to suggest Father Time has not caught up with him just yet, but his latest showing proves his days as Liverpool’s main man might just be behind him. — Lindop
