Has a game in the sixth week of a Premier League season ever been quite so keenly anticipated?
Manchester City’s trip to Liverpool on Sunday — their first fixture since being found guilty of more than 100 Premier League charges of breaching financial rules — threatened to be one of the English top flight’s weirdest occasions.
For what is normally a huge game at the top of the table, most of the pre-match focus this time was on events off the pitch and the potentially toxic atmosphere that would await the current league leaders.
It had become easy to forget this was a meeting between a City team with a 100 per cent record after five matches and one of the sides with hopes of finishing above them in May, regardless of any sanctions that end up being handed down.
Perhaps it was inevitable, then, that the match itself would be something of a sideshow early on, and so it proved for the first hour. But it sprang into life in the space of six second-half minutes.
First, Liverpool’s Ryan Gravenberch was sent off after being shown a second yellow card. Three minutes later, Erling Haaland pounced to give City the lead, and soon after Jeremy Doku curled a sumptuous strike into the top corner to double their advantage.
With the game all but won, Rayan Cherki produced a piece of magic on 78 minutes to make it 3-0 with a superb turn and smart finish.
This was a sixth straight Premier League victory at the start of the season for new manager Enzo Maresca, whose City side move three points clear of champions Arsenal after their win against Leeds United on Saturday. It also meant a first league defeat for Liverpool under their new coach, Andoni Iraola. They are ninth in the table.
Gregg Evans, Sam Lee and Conor O’Neill analyse the main talking points.
Was this the Anfield cauldron City expected?
Everyone came to Anfield expecting fireworks but while there were certainly chants about cheating and verbals exchanged near the away end, the pre-match fun and games was probably not hugely different to any other fixture between these two, really, and that can only be a good thing, with few — if anybody — either coming to harm or ending up in any serious trouble.
There was plenty of merchandise on sale around the stadium — the most eye-catching of all a blue flag emblazoned with the word ‘cheats’ in what can only be described as the Oasis font.
Liverpool fans came armed with banners aimed at Manchester City (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
City fans ended up getting a hold of a couple and took them into the away end, highlighting the defiance that they showed throughout the afternoon — at times, they joined in with ‘You cheating b*****ds, we know what we are’ chants, embracing their team’s pantomime-villains role as on the day and quite possibly for the foreseeable future.
In terms of the in-game atmosphere, it was again not hugely different from a usual big match at Anfield — feisty and demanding, but with extra ‘Cheats!’ chants, such as when Gravenberch was shown his second yellow card.
The poor quality of the football did as much to deflate things as anything else in the first half, and City’s goals took over from there.
Sam Lee
Liverpool fans made their views about Manchester City clear on Sunday (Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
How impressive was this from City in the circumstances?
Until last season, City had not won at Anfield in front of a crowd since 2003. Here, their fans were gleefully “Ole!”-ing with 20 minutes to go. With 10 minutes left, Haaland had been taken off so he could rest his legs before the midweek Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain. The game was long since over as a contest.
Much of the pre-match talk about the match itself focused on how the City players would cope in the red-hot Anfield atmosphere and how they are holding up, given they could be looking for new clubs in a few months if the club’s appeal is thrown out and their punishment sees them relegated.
This win was an answer to that question, although it should be said that it was a poor first half from both sides, and the turning points were Gravenberch’s dismissal and Haaland’s unerring finish to make it 1-0 soon after.
For Doku and Cherki to then score so magnificently really added insult to injury for those who came to the match, or watched around the world, hoping for City to get some just deserts. In the event, they ended up knocking the ball around the pitch for fun as the beaten home side tried to maintain some level of pride.
It is a victory that will do nothing to quell the public anger that has grown and grown in the two weeks since City’s guilty judgment emerged, but it also tells us a lot about a team who, in a footballing sense, are clearly still growing under Maresca.
Sam Lee
Was Gravenberch unlucky to get sent off?
Gravenberch endured a painful afternoon on his return to the starting line-up, as his red card proved costly for Liverpool.
The Dutch midfielder was sent off after picking up two second-half yellow cards for pretty soft fouls on Elliot Anderson and Doku. His dismissal changed the course of the game.
He cut a broken figure as he left the pitch in a mixture of surprise and frustration, but while the cautions were both unfortunate, Gravenberch should have been more measured in his defending when he was playing on a booking. The challenge on Doku came as the Belgium winger was racing away and ready to build an attack, which was always a risky approach.
Gravenberch lost his place in the team after careless mistakes in the opening match of the season against Newcastle and despite an otherwise impressive performance today, this will be another negative mark against his name.
Liverpool were well in the game before his exit, and it was Gravenberch’s attacking play that looked the most likely to create an opening.
He started the match well and covered ground effectively in possession, occasionally bringing back his trademark turn to great effect. He won headers, made interceptions and quickly turned defence into attack on multiple occasions.
After the break, he began driving forward and tested Gianluigi Donnarumma with two fierce shots. But for all his sharp attacking contributions, those two soft but mistimed challenges ultimately defined his afternoon. He squandered the chance to make a mark in the injured Dominik Szoboszlai’s absence.
Gregg Evans
How did City unlock Liverpool?
The red card swung the game decisively, with Liverpool edging the contest before it, but City posed them tactical problems throughout, particularly through their purposeful underlapping runs, which the home side struggled to track.
City have adopted an adventurous style under Maresca, and the graphic below shows how they typically stationed four further attackers behind striker Haaland, leaving Anderson to hold the midfield fort on his own.
The inside-left channel was initially occupied by left-back Nico O’Reilly, before Josko Gvardiol took up the same role after replacing him midway through the second half. That positioning consistently dragged attention away from City’s dribble-hungry wingers by the touchline.
Doku exploited that space to decisive effect for the opening two goals by cutting inside. For the first, O’Reilly charged towards the six-yard box, creating the room for the Belgian to shoot, with the rebound falling to Haaland to finish. The second was pure individual brilliance from the winger, but Gvardiol’s movement still pulled Trey Nyoni away and opened a clear sight of goal for the spectacular curled finish.
Gvardiol’s advanced inside positioning also meant he found himself in the box for City’s third, flicking a tidy assist for Cherki to finish with his typical slick footwork and trademark coolness.
For all the noise off the pitch, City remain a deeply entertaining and fascinating team to watch.
Conor O’Neill
What next for Liverpool?
Wednesday, October 14: LASK (Away), Champions League, 5:45pm BST, 12:45pm ET
What next for City?
Wednesday, October 14: Paris Saint-Germain (Home), Champions League, 8pm BST, 3pm ET.