Manchester City were too good for Liverpool, as a Jeremy Doku inspired performance moved the Blues up to second place in the Premier League table.
After missing a penalty inside the first 15 minutes, Erling
Haaland made amends with a looping header from a fine Matheus Nunes cross to give City the lead.
Liverpool then had a goal controversially ruled out, as Andrew Robertson was said to be interfering with City keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma from an offside position, meaning Virgil van Dijk’s header was disallowed.
City then doubled their lead in first half stoppage time and it was Nico Gonzalez with his first goal of the season, a deflected effort from the edge of the penalty box off Liverpool captain Van Dijk to wrong foot goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Doku sealed the win in Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game in management in the second half, with a sumptuous curling effort from the edge of the penalty box into the top corner.
Here are three things we learned as City cruised past the Premier League champions:
Dazzling Doku is one of the best in the world
I apologise for every negative word I’ve ever said about Doku, and believe me there have been many of them.
The Belgian winger didn’t have a great first two seasons at the club, but in the Club World Cup and at the beginning of this season he’s looked like a different player, one who is more mature and makes better decisions whilst maintaining the maverick qualities that earned him his move to Manchester in 2023.
Against Liverpool, he gave poor Connor Bradley, who incidentally pocketed Vincius Junior in midweek, an absolutely torrid afternoon, and was unfortunate to just come away with just one goal contribution.
His strike, a shimmy onto his right foot and crisp effort from the edge of the box, is exactly what we’ve all been craving from Doku, and it looks like the 23-year-old is delivering the goods on a much more consistent basis now for City.
The Blues have plenty of competition for spaces in attacking areas, but Doku is putting his name along with Haaland as an undroppable player in the well functioning City attack, and definitely one of the leading players in the world on the left wing.
The full back conundrum has been solved
It seems like full back has been a constant period of change for City even amongst the best iterations of Guardiola’s City.
Kyle Walker, Joao Cancelo, Fabian Delph, Oleksander Zinchenko, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Josko Gvardiol have all been regular starters in that position in title winning teams, a fairly high turnover compared to other positions (Ederson was the starting goalkeeper for every title win so far under Pep.)
But in Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly, City might have found a full back partnership that can last them for a few years.
Credit to Guardiola’s coaching and Nunes himself, because the Portuguese international is a man reborn this season.
At 27 years old, he is good enough to play at right back for City, at least as a squad option, for the next few years. He’s athletic, quick, a good one vs one defender and is making his daft mistakes less and less frequently.
O’Reilly on the other side is the perfect Guardiola player. Like Nunes, he’s a midfielder by trade, so contributes a lot going forwards. He’s also a strong, intelligent defender who is comfortable coming into midfield or charging forward down the left hand side.
The two of them have had tremendous starts to the season, and if they keep fit and keep playing well then they’ll contribute to success for City this season.
I apologise to Bernardo
I’ve already apologised to Doku in this article, and now it’s time to apologise to Bernardo Silva.
In my post match view of the 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa, I said that Bernardo, along with John Stones, needs to now be phased out of the team as he looks set to leave at the end of the season when his contract expires.
But, as he always does against Liverpool, Bernardo delivered yesterday.
The 31-year-old floated around the pitch, picking the ball up at the back and on the edge of the box, playing the roaming playmaker role perfectly.
He never hides and constantly gets stuck in even when he’s not playing particularly well. Bernardo isn’t a flashy player, certainly not anymore, but gets along with his business quietly and efficiently.
He’s an absolute credit to the club as captain, wears his heart on his sleeve and now the rest of the team is performing better and Bernardo is less fatigued, he can begin showing his vast levels of quality again.
