Pep Guardiola celebrated his 1,000th recreation as a supervisor with a convincing win over an previous rival as Manchester Metropolis overpowered Liverpool 3-0 Sunday.
Erling Haaland was once more on the scoresheet, opening the scoring for a dominant Metropolis aspect on the Etihad Stadium along with his 99th Premier League purpose after lacking an earlier penalty.
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk had an equalizer controversially disallowed, however the champions have been second finest for a lot of a sodden afternoon and fell additional behind to a deflected Nico González strike earlier than the break.
The excellent Jérémy Doku, who tormented Liverpool proper again Conor Bradley, added a elegant third on his one centesimal look for the membership.
Victory lifted Metropolis again as much as second within the desk and inside 4 factors of leaders Arsenal, and condemned Liverpool to but extra soul-searching.
Arne Slot’s aspect had emerged from a current hunch with spectacular back-to-back wins over Aston Villa and Actual Madrid, however the defeat was their fifth in six league video games and left them eight factors adrift of the Gunners.
Arsenal dropped factors on Saturday and Metropolis appeared hungry to take benefit whereas Liverpool, who may even have gone second with a win, did not get out of the blocks.
Bradley might have dealt nicely with Vinícius Júnior in midweek however he was given a torrid time on this event by Doku.
The Belgian winger was electrical and nearly slid Phil Foden in on purpose early on.
Doku was the primary participant within the recreation’s main speaking level after 9 minutes when he burst previous two defenders and went down following a problem by Giorgi Mamardashvili.
No penalty was given initially and replays urged contact was minimal, however referee Chris Kavanagh reversed his determination after being summoned to the VAR display screen.
Liverpool might have felt justice was served as Mamardashvili pushed away Haaland’s spot kick, however the reprieve didn’t final lengthy.
After Doku had created additional possibilities for Rayan Cherki and himself, Matheus Nunes whipped in a cross from the correct within the twenty ninth minute. Haaland leapt above a static Ibrahima Konaté and headed firmly previous Mamardashvili who, in contrast to for the spot kick, was rooted to the spot.
Liverpool thought they’d levelled when Van Dijk planted a header contained in the submit from a nook, however his effort was dominated out for an offside in opposition to Andrew Robertson on the road.
The Reds’ frustrations have been compounded in first-half stoppage time as Gonzalez’s long-range strike took a deflection off Van Dijk and wrong-footed Mamardashvili.
– European soccer recap: Man Metropolis brush apart Liverpool
– Man Metropolis’s Haaland on prolific kind: ‘I’ve by no means felt higher’
Liverpool produced a few of their finest soccer after the break and Gonzalez nearly sliced into his personal internet from a Bradley cross. Cody Gakpo then missed the goal from shut vary after one other Bradley supply.
Doku put the sport past doubt simply after the hour when he took a go from Nico O’Reilly and curled in a shocking first league purpose since January.
Liverpool couldn’t even handle a comfort with a Dominik Szoboszlai shot saved by Gianluigi Donnarumma and Mohamed Salah poking large.