At the start of the season in the Premier League, there was not a single Liverpool fan, even the most loyal ones, who thought that their team, without any new players, and a rookie coach, could challenge Manchester City and Arsenal for the title. And yet, here we are at the beginning of December, and the league title is Liverpool’s to lose! Arne Slot made a revolution with Jurgen Klopp’s team as they play fantastically and are making their wins look easy. After 2-0 against great Real Madrid in the Champions League, the Reds did the same against Manchester City tonight and not only brought down the Citizens to the fifth place but created an 11-point gap between them and the current champions. It’s too early to say it out loud, but Liverpool is a candidate for the title right now.Two things strike out from this match – the unreal dominance with which Liverpool won this game and the terrible display by the current champion. This was City’s seventh game without a win (in all competition) and their sixth defeat. The unseen crisis for both Citizens and Pep Guardiola personally continues and who knows how will it end. If it was any other coach, he would already be fired, but the Spaniard won six titles with Manchester (four consecutive ones), which he did point out to the Liverpool fans, who sang to him ‘Sacked in the morning’ near the end of the game. This situation alone, where the experienced coach reacts to the crowd’s chanting, is worrying and tells a lot about the current state of affairs in the club.Pep Guardiola responded to “you’re getting sacked in the morning” chants by holding up six fingers, one for each Premier League title he’s won 🍿 pic.twitter.com/anh8wRVnwh— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 1, 2024 Guardiola definitely tried to prepare his players for this game. He also benched Ederson in favour of Stefan Ortega, while Josko Gvardiol was also dropped, but nothing helped. City looked like a relegation team against Liverpool, who had a historic chance to score at least five goals against the current champion, but their players just missed chance after chance. City have now conceded six goals in the first 15 minutes of the first half, no team has conceded more in the Premier League this season. It’s a staggering statistic for Guardiola. They haven’t made a single shot in the first 15 minutes and ended up with eight overall, only because Liverpool took the foot off the pedal in the last 15 minutes of the game. Liverpool was so dominant in the first 20 minutes of the game, that it looked like they have a chance every time they cross to the City’s part of the field. Dominik Szoboszlai got the ball from Mac Allister in the 11th minute, but Ortega used his feet to shovel it away from danger. The Argentinian was in the middle of the action minutes again, and this time he assisted to Van Dijk, whose header slammed against the inside of the post. But in the next minute, City were finally beaten. Their high line was breached, and Salah delivered a brilliant cross for Cody Gakpo, who scored from one meter away. After that, the Reds continued to press, looking for the second goal, and it was only after Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold’s near misses that City finally managed to cross over to the Liverpool side of the field. Until the end of the half, the guests managed to change possession rating from embarrassing 38% to 50%, but only had one shot off the target.Cody Gakpo had more touches in the opposition box (8) than the entire Manchester City side combined (5) in the first half. 📦 https://t.co/H3MlGWuSIS— Squawka (@Squawka) December 1, 2024 Whatever Pep Guardiola said in the locker room clearly didn’t work, as the Red created two good chances in the first two minutes of the second half. Things looked pretty much the same as in the first part of the game and Liverpool continued to create chances. The biggest one of the whole match happened in the 56th minute, when Salah stole the ball away from Akanji and was left face to face with Ortega, but stunningly missed the whole goal! Savinho and Doku were introduced but the ultra-attacking formation brought nothing to City. They were still heavily beaten in defence as the Red did pretty much what they wanted. It was finally over and the win was secured when Walker and Dias had a complete breakdown in communication and allowed Diaz to burst through in the 76th minute. Ortega brought him down and Salah was precise – 2:0 and big 11 points difference over City and nine over Arsenal.ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE – MATCHDAY 13Friday Brighton – Southampton 1-1 (1-0)/Mitoma 29 – Downes 59/Saturday Brentford – Leicester 4-1 (3-1)/Wissa 25, Schade 29, 45+8, 59 – Buonanotte 21/Crystal Palace – Newcastle 1-1 (0-0)/Munoz 90+4 – Guehi 53 og/Nott.Forest – Ipswich 1-0 (0-0)/Wood 48 pen/Wolverhampton – Bournemouth 2-4 (1-3)/Larsen 5, 69 – Kluivert 3 pen, 16 pen, 74 pen, Kerkez 8/West Ham – Arsenal 2-5 (2-5)/Wan-Bissaka 38, Emerson 40 – Gabriel 10, Trossard 27, Odegaard 34 pen, Havertz 36, Saka 45+5 pen/Sunday Chelsea – Aston Villa 3-0 (2-0)/Jackson 7, Fernandez 36, Palmer 83/Man.Utd. – Everton 4-0 (2-0)/Rashford 34, 46, Zirkzee 41, 64/Tottenham – Fulham 1-1 (0-0)/Johnson 54 – Cairney 67/Liverpool – Man.City 2-0 (1-0)/Gakpo 12, Salah 76(p)/
