Liverpool digs into City’s wound and deals a blow to the Premier League

Manchester City’s crisis has no end. Pep Guardiola’s team has now gone seven games without knowing victory and chained the fourth consecutive defeat in the Premier League, something that has not happened since 2007. Liverpool was their executioner and Anfield was once again the stage in which the team by Arne Slot showed why they are the best of the moment in England and Europe. His verticality, his punch, his dizzying pace and his high pressure contrasted with a team skyblue disnorted and dismasted. With the goals from Gakpo and Salah, those from Merseyside consolidate themselves as leaders of the English championship and leave the cityzens11 points away from the first and located in fifth position, outside the Champions League places.

Liverpool’s start was overwhelming. In just eleven minutes, the networks They had already generated five chances and a post from Virgil van Dijk. And it was then (12′) when the ball entered the net and dealt a hard blow to the cityzens. Mo Salah – who, despite everything, did not have one of his best games – saw Cody Gakpo break away from the visiting defense and the Egyptian put the ball to the far post for him to finish at will.

Liverpool are more leaders with the victory against City: they are nine points clear of second place, Arsenal

After the local goal, Arne Slot’s team continued with the gale. They came out very quickly on the counterattack and City, very blurred and unrecognizable, tried to leave their own field without success. The Merseyside team dominated with and without the ball, without suffering. Anfield enjoyed seeing their team run wild, nullifying and unraveling a Manchester City team unable to make a play and forcing them to do something unusual: retreat. The rhythm was exciting.

The skybluesapparently fused, also suffered in set pieces. In the 18th minute, Van Dijk had the opportunity to make it 2-0 after a corner in which the ball passed very close to the right wood of Stefan Ortega’s goal (Pep Guardiola surprised by leaving Ederson on the bench, although his team They did not miss him because of Ortega’s notable role).

From the 25th minute onwards, Liverpool began to lack depth and that allowed Guardiola’s men to begin to gain ground and prevent the rival field from taking forever. However, they could not connect with Haaland or Foden, a circumstance that meant that the first of the visitors did not reach until the 38th minute through the boots of Rico Lewis.

In this momentous event, it was once again evident that the absences of Rodri and Kovacic greatly weaken City’s engine room. This situation forces the skyblues to make strange movements, like Akanji forming a double pivot with Bernardo Silva.

Despite the overwhelming control of the party of the networksthe dynamic of the match changed in the second half. Manchester City reached 75% possession of the ball in the first ten minutes after the break and their performance improved. On the other hand, Slot’s team locked themselves in more, with a clear desire to go out on the counterattack and renounce high pressure.

The Santpedor team played more in the final third, but did not generate danger. However, the home team set off alarm bells for the visitors every time they left their area. Ortega had a providential intervention before the 55th minute in a one-on-one with Gakpo and Salah made a glaring mistake when he was alone against the goalkeeper cityzen.

Guardiola reacted by bringing Doku and Savinho onto the pitch, two wingers who brought freshness to his team and gave the defense work. grid by generating many superiorities. However, 1-1 did not seem to be close either.

The sentence came with an error by Rúben Dias, who after a mistake with Darwin Núñez caused Luis Díaz to go alone to face the visiting goal and Ortega had to knock down the Colombian. Mo Salah converted the maximum penalty in the 77th minute, sealing the game.

From that moment on, it was closer to 3-0 than an eventual 2-1. Only in the 82nd minute did Van Dijk make a mistake and De Bruyne took the opportunity to try to score, but Kelleher intervened and prevented it.

With Anfield singing olés To celebrate their team’s victory in the final minutes, a clash between Merseyside fans and Pep Guardiola was surprising, at whom they shouted that he would be dismissed tomorrow. The Catalan coach made a gesture with six fingers of his hands, alluding to the six Premier League titles he has won with the skyblues. Revalidating the throne seems, however, very complex for a City that still cannot find itself and is sinking a little further.