City continued their mixed run of form with a 2-1 loss at Anfield as Liverpool moved closer to a top four place on Sunday, in another very poor performance from Manuel Pellegrini’s team that has left many fans consigned to defeat in this year’s title race with just 11 games to go.
Yaya Toure was back in the starting lineup after being banned for the visit of Barcelona on Tuesday, and he formed a partnership with Fernandinho at Anfield, with both of them fresh from not having played during the week. Kolarov and Mangala were also back in, replacing Clichy and Demichelis respectively. Dzeko, who has impressed with his performances since Bony returned from the African Cup of Nations, was again chosen over the Ivorian to partner Sergio Aguero in attack. Interestingly, Liverpool started with no recognised strikers and had all of Sturridge, Borini, Balotelli and Lambert on the bench.
City started in quick fashion, trying to get at Liverpool early on although nothing came of it. Liverpool managed to get the ball in the net after just 9 minutes when Coutinho drove in a cross from the left, which Adam Lallana took well before smashing past Joe Hart with a superb finish from an acute angle. The goal would have stood and would have been a worthy opener had Lallana not been offside.
However, Liverpool had the ball in the net again a couple of minutes later, and this time it did stand. Jordan Henderson received the ball 25 yards from goal and came inside with it, before curling high over Joe Hart with a brilliant finish. Kompany can be held accountable somewhat, but you can’t subtract anything from the sheer quality of the finish.
The Blues looked like they might be back in the game a matter of mere minutes later when David Silva played Sergio Aguero in over the top, only for the Argentinian’s volley to smash against the post and come back out, with Mignolet beaten.
Aguero managed to redeem himself on 25 minutes, when he sliced open the Liverpool defence – taking 5 players out of the game – with a beautiful pass to Dzeko who slotted under Mignolet to equalise for City. Skrtel can be criticised for moving up and allowing Dzeko the space to run into, but those are the goals that we haven’t seen enough of this season.
City managed to make it to half-time level, but less than 10 minutes into the second half Lallana had the ball in the net again from close-range after a Liverpool free-kick, but was again flagged offside after Martin Skrtel had knocked it down to Lallana who put the ball past Hart.
Liverpool controlled much of the second half, and eventually got their reward on 75 minutes thanks to another world-class finish, this time from Philippe Coutinho. He got the ball in the left channel, and turned inside before curling it expertly over the heads of four City players and Joe Hart only for it to nestle in the back of the net. It’s fair to say it summed up just how good Liverpool were on Sunday, and it’s a goal that deserves to win a game like today.
Despite The Reds playing extra-time and penalties against Besiktas on Thursday in Turkey, they looked a lot more energetic than City and seemed to want the win more than their visitors. There were very few positives to be taken, apart from the performance of Dzeko and perhaps a select couple of others. On the whole, not a good day for anyone involved with City. We need to try and forget about this now, and try to go into Wednesday night against Leicester hungry to win. The title race might (or might not) be over, but the race for second certainly isn’t, and we can’t afford to let that go.
