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LIVERPOOL, England – The Premier League trophy is still on display in the Liverpool club museum at Anfield, but they can start to remove the red ribbons and tag it back to the previous owner after Manchester City’s riotous 4-1 win on Sunday. This season’s title race was a formality and ended the defending champions’ hopes of retaining their crown.
To suggest that City’s victory marked a changing of the guard would be overstating things a bit, considering that Pep Guardiola’s team had won consecutive titles before Liverpool’s first in 30 years last season.
For City, they will believe that their victory, the first at Anfield since 2003 and for Guardiola as coach, was simply a sign that normal service has resumed. This, however, was much more; it was a statement to the rest of the Premier League that they are by far the best team in the country.
“We have done brilliantly so I cannot deny how happy we are,” Guardiola said. “Coming here and finally winning is very important. It is an important victory, but in February nobody is a champion. I cannot predict the future, but all I can predict is work and work. Tomorrow, we look towards the next match.”
Guardiola is right to be pragmatic, but it would be foolish to underestimate the form of his team’s last victory, because he destroyed Liverpool.
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City dominated the game, exposing the defensive deficiencies of Liverpool full-backs Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold and embarrassing goalkeeper Alisson Becker by clinically punishing the Brazilian international by scoring two goals from his mistakes in the second half.
Meanwhile, a standout performance by Phil Foden, who scored City’s second goal and scored superbly the fourth, highlighted why the 20-year-old is considered the jewel of the club’s youth ranks. Raheem Sterling, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva were also unstoppable in midfield.
Having lost their last two home games, against Burnley and Brighton, Liverpool’s confidence heading into this match clearly deflated, but they ended up not only having been beaten again, but with their opponents making them look normal.
Less than a year after Jurgen Klopp’s team was hailed as one of the best, if not the Best: Premier League era teams, their title defense has collapsed after just half a season and the goal now is simply to secure qualification for the Champions League.
Liverpool are 10 points behind leaders City, having played one more game than Guardiola’s, so they can forget about the title. Keeping West Ham, Everton and Chelsea at bay in the battle for fourth place is the priority and that is not a foregone conclusion for a team that lacks energy and ideas and will be without its best defender, Virgil van Dijk, until the next season.
“It’s very difficult to explain that we lost 4-1,” Klopp said. “We made our goal and at that point the game can go two ways, but Alisson made two massive mistakes, he scored two goals and then there was a great Phil Foden situation.
“But we have to move on,” Klopp continued. “This is not the best time of our lives and we will try everything [for the top four]. There are enough games to ensure that, but we have to win them. “
The city has no such concerns. Manchester United may still harbor weak hopes of fighting for the title, but this result took their neighbors five points away from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side and City still have a game in hand, so there is little hope for the chasing group. .
Guardiola’s team is simply playing too well to be caught, despite the continued absence of Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Agüero.
They have won 14 consecutive matches in all competitions and could even afford to miss another penalty before sealing this latest victory. Gundogan’s mistake in the first half from the penalty spot was the third penalty that City missed against Liverpool in their last four league games, but it didn’t matter in the end.
It was City’s control of the ball, the movement in the attacking third and the determination to target Alexander-Arnold and Robertson that made them so devastating. Liverpool had no response and looked at a predictable pace, despite Mohamed Salah giving them hope of a victory by scoring from the penalty spot in the 63rd minute to disallow Gundogan’s first goal, scored just after the halftime.
Salah’s goal was Liverpool’s first in the league at Anfield for 411 minutes, which tells you all about the decline in his form over the past two months. However, Klopp’s men were unable to gain momentum after calling, and City quickly regained the advantage.
John Stones had a goal disallowed for offside, but two minutes later Gundogan made it 2-1 after Alisson’s clearance fell on Foden, who dribbled inside the area before sending the German to the net from close range. .
Sterling quickly made it 3-1, heading a Bernardo cross at the far post after another error by Alisson, before Foden, facing England manager Gareth Southgate, scored an unstoppable quarter in the 83rd minute.
The celebrations on the City bench were testimony to the importance of Foden’s goal and the victory he confirmed. This was a game that could have halted their rise in form, six days before a tough home clash with Tottenham, but they did it instead and consigned Liverpool to the role of outgoing champion.
