MANCHESTER — Liverpool underlined their status as Premier League champions-elect, as they brushed aside Manchester City 2-0 at a rainy Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
Was this the weekend they won a record-equalling 20th league title? The way Arne Slot and his players celebrated suggests so. “We’re going to win the league!” sang their fans in the away end. How can you disagree with them?
MORE — Man City vs Liverpool recap | Player ratings
Slot’s side have momentarily moved 11 points clear of Arsenal, having played a game more, and Liverpool can almost taste the champagne of the title celebrations. Their fans in the away end celebrated wildly and know how big this win is as they made it 23 games unbeaten in the Premier League.
It was Liverpool’s first win in the Premier League at Man City since November 2015 and the calmness and brilliance of Mohamed Salah to score the first and then set up the Dominik Szoboszlai for the second summed up their aura of invincibility. It’s the first time they’ve done the double over City since 2015-16 and they’ve now gone 20 points clear of the reigning champs.
Here’s what we learned from yet another dramatic Manchester City vs Liverpool encounter.
Mohamed Salah has joined the Premier League greats
The Egyptian King, Mohamed Salah, was the difference for Liverpool once again as he calmly slotted home the first and then delicately placed the ball on a plate for Dominik Szoboszlai to score the second. Salah has been the difference maker ever since he arrive at Anfield in 2017. If there was ever any doubting that he is a legend of the Premier League, this season has cemented his status. He delivers crucial goals and assists at pivotal moments and in his current form he’s unplayable. Salah has now scored in eight-straight games in all competitions. He’s the first player in Premier League history to be involved in 40 goals in two separate seasons. He leads the Premier League in goals (25) and assists (16) this season. He has scored 241 goals for Liverpool, now joint-third for the most goals in club history. Shall we go on? The only issue for Liverpool is that Salah is out of contract in a few months. Will he walk away from the Premier League as one of the all-time greats? Or will he stay for an encore? As consistently excellent as he’s been, it’s hard to imagine Salah having a better season than this in the future. Whatever happens this summer, be glad you’ve seen Salah this season.
City’s over-reliance on Haaland clear to see
This wasn’t a terrible performance from City. They had close to 70 percent possession, dominated large portions of the game and easily outshot Liverpool. But with Erling Haaland out injured they never looked like turning their territorial dominance into goals. Jeremy Doku had the beating of Trent Alexander-Arnold time and time again and whipped in several crosses to the near post but nobody was there for City. Haaland would usually be there. For so often the question about Haaland at City has been ‘but how will he fit into their system and team?’ Now it’s, ‘How can City make it work when he’s not in the team?’ City have adapted to Haaland’s strengths and they missed their focal point, their talisman, their predator in the box. So much of their play now revolves around Haaland’s movement, playing off him and then cutting balls back for him to bully defenders and finish. Omar Marmoush and Phil Foden played as false nines in lieu of Haaland and both had their moments. Foden teeing up Marmoush to finish in the first half but he was just offside. But that was as good as it got. Pace, trickery and creativity only gets you so far against the likes of Van Dijk and Konate. The brute strength of Haaland was missed massively. And that is now going to be the case each time he’s missing in the coming years. City are built around Haaland and have no like-for-like replacement when he’s out. That has to change.
Slot finds creative solution for Liverpool’s attack
If City rely heavily on one individual (Haaland) for their system and style of play, Liverpool don’t under Arne Slot. Yes, Salah’s brilliance on the right is a huge reason why they’re top of the league. But so is Arne Slot constantly tweaking things. Slot wasn’t happy with Liverpool’s balance with Jota or Nunez up top while Gakpo has been out recently, so he put Diaz on the left and played a combination of Jones and Szoboszlai as false nines. It worked a treat. They dragged City’s defense out and opened up space for Salah and Diaz to exploit. Slot found a creative solution to not having Gakpo available from the start on the left. It was unconventional but creative and showed Slot’s ability to be flexible. He would have wanted more of the ball but he gave that up. His team pressed in the right moments, were clinical and moved as one up the pitch when they did win it. This was a total team performance from a team that is going to win the Premier League this season.
