There are those football games where the fall of a former superpower is confirmed and a new orthodoxy, already suspected but yet to be authoritatively confirmed, makes a definite declaration of their new-found superiority. Hungary vs England. Manchester City whomping Manchester United. This could very well go down as one of those games.
Liverpool have been the best team in England and the best team in Europe all season, while all-conquering Manchester City have been repeatedly humbled over the past couple of months. Every single part of Liverpool’s 11-point lead over the fifth-placed reigning champions was hammered home again and again, and it could have been worse for City had Liverpool not wasted so many chances.
City were toothless and deeply, deeply unsure of themselves. Liverpool were confident, incisive, and firmly in control of the flow of the game despite City having the bulk of the possession.
Pep Guardiola may be distressed by the joy neutrals are taking in City’s awful form, and amusing though it may be, it has also made City interesting for the first time in a long time.
That’s not a knock on City; if anything, it’s a compliment to how dominant they have been. The writers of Superman constantly had to come up with storyline reasons for him to become fallible, because watching him win with ease again and again would be exceptionally dull. We enjoy seeing people and sports teams tested, and City have not failed so many of those tests since Guardiola’s arrival.
Whatever happened to City in this game, it would make for another compelling story beat. This would either be the first episode of a redemption arc, or the continued diminution of a god into mere mortal form.
And good lord, did they look human right in the opening stages. A City team that used to delight in passing patiently but purposefully around and through their opposition could barely get out of their own half at times. A dominant Liverpool side in confident enough form to press high up the pitch right from the off only grew larger once they sensed just how vulnerable City really were; change City’s kit, and an uninformed observer would have assumed Liverpool were playing Southampton again.
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Every Liverpool ball forward, even mere clearances, created panic in the City defence in the opening 15 minutes, so it was inevitable that once they started playing more intentional long balls, it would catch the opposition out.
That’s what happened for the opener, just a minute after Virgil van Dijk had hit the post from a set piece: a raking pass from the edge of the Liverpool third found Mo Salah on the right wing, and his cross was perfectly curled around Stefan Ortega and toward the back post for Cody Gakpo to finish without needing to do anything more than let the ball hit him and bounce in.
Like a mourner who finds unexpected serenity now the inevitable worst is over, that weirdly seemed to settle City down – but nothing more than that. It took until the 39th minute for them to manage their first shot of any kind, a tame Rico Lewis effort that caught as much turf as ball and ran tamely wide as a result.
In the meantime, Liverpool again clipped the post through Trent Alexander-Arnold’s strike from the edge of the box and frightened City several times with moves from the flanks that ultimately came to nothing. The scoreboard showed 1-0 at the break, and City were lucky it wasn’t more.
The visitors were slightly better for around ten minutes after the break before the game resumed its previous pattern: City would have long spells on the ball, do nothing with it, then Liverpool’s long balls forward kept getting them in behind a desperately scrambling defence, only for them to waste their most presentable chances.
But Salah atoned for missing a one-on-one with Ortega when he stepped up to the penalty spot and placed the ball so perfectly that the keeper could not get there despite diving the correct way.
Guardiola allowed himself a little smile at the Liverpool fans’ chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’, before calmly turning and holding up six fingers to indicate the number of league titles he has won at City.
When this fixture rolls around next year, you strongly suspect Arne Slot will be able to hold one finger of his own up to the City fans. With a nine-point advantage over second-placed Arsenal and Chelsea, and with their brilliance confirmed again, it would take a hell of a collapse from here for them to blow it from here.
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