Manchester, England – Liverpool took a giant step of the first League victory with a 2-0 victory on Sunday out of the outgoing Champion of Manchester City, placing 11 points clearly at the top of the table.
Mohamed wrongThe 30th goal of the season in all competitions and a Dominique Strike sealed a much more comfortable victory than the score suggests.
For Man City, who was without injured Erling HaalandThe defeat leaves them in front of a battle to qualify for the Champions League of next season.
City is now in fourth position, 20 points behind Liverpool, and in a race with Newcastle, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Aston Villa for a place in the Champions League.
Was it the weekend that Liverpool won the first League 2024-25?
If Arsenal had beaten West Ham on Saturday and Liverpool had not managed to beat City on Sunday, the title would have been in the hands of Arsenal. Mikel Arteta’s artillerymen would have been five points behind with a match in hand and a trip to Anfield to arrive in May.
Instead, Arsenal lost against West Ham, Liverpool won in Etihad and the gap at the top of the table was widening at 11 points. From there, it is difficult to see someone other than Liverpool is crowned champion at the end of the season.
Arsenal once reversed a 13-point deficit to beat Manchester United under the 1997-1998 campaign. But it was in December with more than half of the season to play. Liverpool d’Arne Slot has only 11 games to play, and nine additional victories would guarantee the title, whatever the winning race that Arsenal can achieve.
Liverpool has matches against Newcastle, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal to negotiate, but they can afford to lose two and finish the top. In time, Liverpool fans have started to sing: “We are going to win the League”. It is difficult to challenge their evaluation. – Rob Dawson
Man City does not win when it matters as if they
Manchester City is no longer the team of the great occasion, but this defeat against Liverpool was not permanent proof of this, simply the last example of the way in which the team of Pep Guardiola lost the ability to win when This counts.
If you look at the city’s results since the end of the 2022-23 season, when they won the triples, they did not win a single match when the pressure was on. Not since having beaten Inter Milan in the final of the Champions League of 2023, in fact.
Last season, City did not beat Liverpool or Arsenal in the Premier League, and it was the same time this time. As for the Champions League, City has played four games against Real Madrid since he won the competition and has won any of them. And during the FA Cup final last season against Manchester United, although they are overwhelming favorites to beat their neighbors and win a double league and cup, the Guardiola team lost.
Thus, when Liverpool arrived at Etihad in search of its first victory at Etihad in seven years, the Slot team would have considered the city with much less fear and sadness as before. City has been sad this season and has lost 14 of their last 27 games in all competitions, but it is their inability to compete with the biggest and best teams that have been a problem for some time now.
Guardiola teams have always been the ones who won when it was, but they haven’t done it for almost two years now. – Mark Ogden
Slot realizes something that Klopp has never been able to
During his first season at the head of Liverpool, Slot is already on the right track to match the transport of the title of Jurgen Klopp, and has already checked something that his predecessor has never succeeded.
Klopp’s rivalry with Guardiola characterized an era of the Premier League, but the German never recorded a victory in the league over the city of Guardiola at the Etihad stadium. Slot did it during his first attempt. Klopp would probably say that he never faced a Guardiola team that languished 20 points from the top of the table.
It is remarkable that Klopp led Liverpool to 97 points in 2018-19 and 92 points in 2021-2022 and finished second on occasion. Slot, however, can only beat what is in front of him. Liverpool was at ease of the winners here, just as they were in the city of Anfield in December.
He indicates everything about the place where these two teams are this season that Liverpool was able to pass Real Madrid in the phase of the Champions League group in November. City, on the other hand, was well beaten in Bernabeu on Wednesday when they released their release from Europe.
Slot has Liverpool to continue three trophies in what could end up being a dream season. Guardiola, on the other hand, is left in the face of the prospect of a summer reconstruction. – Dawson
The young team of Man City learns a hard lesson
With the experience of DIAS Ruben,, Kovacic Mateo,, Bernardo Silva And Ilkay Gündogan Left on the bench, Guardiola aligned a young team. They obtained a Liverpool lesson, which produced the perfect performance of the big game far from her house.
Disciplined and clinical, Liverpool was the best team and could have scored more. After the journey of punishment to Madrid, Guardiola decided that he needed the legs and energy of young people and chose a departure 11th with an average age of 24.7. Seven team members were 24 years old or less. Guardiola also chose three 20 -year -old children Rico Lewis,, Rescuer And Abdukodir Khusanov And his first substitution was to replace the 33 -year -old Kevin de Bruyne 22 years old James McATEE.
There are a lot of talents in the hearts of young players in the city, but there will naturally be an element of naivety. In particular, Guardiola will be furious against Liverpool’s first goal. He came from a well -worked corner routine with Alexis Mac Allister Roll up a pass in the nearby post and Szoboszlai launching it and Salah finding hectares of space in the penalty surface to mark by a deviation from Nathan what.
It was a crucial moment in the game and a lack of relative experience of the city was revealing. – Dawson
De Bruyne quickly fades
Kevin de Bruyne will be as legend of the first first order premier thanks to his incredible 10 years in Manchester City, but we look at the last days of the midfield at Etihad, and it becomes a sad farewell for the 33- years.
From Bruyne, who won 14 major honors, including six premier league titles with City, was replaced halfway half-time by Guardiola after a nightmarish performance against Liverpool. The Belgian international was capricious with his passes and could not keep the pace of the dynamic midfielder from Liverpool Ryan Gravenberch and Mac Allister.
When replaced by James McATEE, it was inevitable, and his unconscious walk to the touchline sums up the frustration of De Bruyne. Four days before this match, de Bruyne was appointed substitute for the essential victory of the city – they lost – the matching eliminatory of the Champions League against Real Madrid, and it was a peripheral figure throughout this season .
With his contract which expires in summer and without further agreement on the table, by Bruyne fades quickly. City has a lot of problems to solve, but replacing one of their best players will be close to the list. – Ogden
Salah is in Liverpool what Haaland was in town
Salah won his goal for the season at 30 with the Liverpool opening match at Etihad, and he also became the first player of the Big Five Leagues in Europe to record 50 goal involvement by creating the second For Szoboszlai. Even if we still have three months of the season to play, Salah is only two goal games of the break of the Luis Suárez club record of 43 in the Premier League.
There are no superlatives left to describe Salah and its importance for Liverpool, which sails the title. The Egyptian international seems to be a certainty of winning the individual prizes for players of the year and he will compete with all Real Madrid star players for this year’s Golden Ball.
But with Erling Haaland missing this match for Manchester City due to a knee injury, Salah’s contribution has shown how important it is for Liverpool as Haaland in the city. Guardiola’s side has no threat without Haaland, but because Salah rarely lacks a match, we don’t really know how Liverpool would face it.
With the Salah contract which is to expire this summer, Liverpool really needs to sort a new agreement with the attacker to delay having to know what life could look like without him. – Ogden
