MANCHESTER, England — Liverpool took a giant step closer to winning the Premier League title with a 2-0 win on Sunday at outgoing champions Manchester City, moving 11 points clear at the top of the table.
Mohamed Salah‘s 30th goal of the season in all competitions and a Dominik Szoboszlai strike sealed a victory that was much more comfortable than the scoreline suggests.
For Man City, who were without the injured Erling Haaland, the loss leaves them facing a battle to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
City are now in fourth position, 20 points behind Liverpool, and in a race with Newcastle, Bournemouth, Chelsea and Aston Villa for a Champions League spot.
Was this the weekend Liverpool won the 2024-25 Premier League?
If Arsenal had beaten West Ham on Saturday and Liverpool had failed to beat City on Sunday, the title would have been in Arsenal’s hands. Mikel Arteta’s Gunners would have been five points behind with a game in hand and a trip to Anfield to come in May.
Instead, Arsenal lost to West Ham, Liverpool won at the Etihad and the gap at the top of the table has widened to 11 points. From here, it’s difficult to see anyone other than Liverpool being crowned champions at the end of the season.
Arsenal once overturned a 13-point deficit to beat Manchester United to the title in the 1997-98 campaign. But that was in December with more than half the season left to play. Arne Slot’s Liverpool have only 11 games remaining, and nine more wins would guarantee the title, regardless of any winning run Arsenal can put together.
Liverpool have games against Newcastle, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal to negotiate, but they can afford to lose two and still finish top. In stoppage time, the Liverpool fans began singing, “We’re going to win the league.” It’s hard to argue with their assessment. — Rob Dawson
Man City don’t win when it matters like they used to
Manchester City are no longer the team for the big occasion, but this defeat against Liverpool wasn’t the definitive proof of that, merely the latest example of how Pep Guardiola’s team has lost the ability to win when it matters.
If you look back through City’s results since the end of the 2022-23 season, when they won the treble, they haven’t won a single game when the pressure was on. Not since beating Inter Milan in the 2023 Champions League final, in fact.
Last season, City failed to beat Liverpool or Arsenal in the Premier League, and it has been the same this time around. As for the Champions League, City have had four games against Real Madrid since winning the competition and not won any of them. And in last season’s FA Cup final against Manchester United, despite being overwhelming favourites to beat their neighbours and clinch a league and cup double, Guardiola’s team lost.
So, when Liverpool arrived at the Etihad looking for their first win at the Etihad in seven years, Slot’s side would have regarded City with far less fear and trepidation as before. City have been woeful this season and have lost 14 of their past 27 games in all competitions, but it is their failure to compete against the biggest and best sides that has been an issue for a while now.
Guardiola’s teams were always the ones that won when it mattered, but they haven’t done that now for almost two years. — Mark Ogden
Slot achieves something Klopp never could
In his first season leading Liverpool, Slot is already on course to match Jurgen Klopp’s title haul, and has already ticked off something his predecessor never managed.
Klopp’s rivalry with Guardiola characterised a Premier League era, but the German never recorded a league win over Guardiola’s City at the Etihad Stadium. Slot has done it at his first attempt. Klopp would probably argue that he never faced a Guardiola team that was languishing 20 points off the top of the table, though.
It’s remarkable that Klopp led Liverpool to 97 points in 2018-19 and 92 points in 2021-22 and finished second on both occasions. Slot, though, can beat only what’s in front of him. Liverpool were comfortable winners here, just as they were over City at Anfield in December.
It says everything about where these two teams are this season that Liverpool were able to cruise past Real Madrid in the Champions League group phase in November. City, on the other hand, were well beaten at the Bernabeu on Wednesday as they made their exit from Europe.
Slot has Liverpool chasing three trophies in what could end up being a dream season. Guardiola, meanwhile, is left facing the prospect of a summer rebuild. — Dawson
Man City’s young team learns a harsh lesson
With the experience of Rúben Dias, Mateo Kovacic, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gündogan left on the bench, Guardiola fielded a young team. They got a lesson from Liverpool, who produced the perfect big-game performance away from home.
Disciplined and clinical, Liverpool were the better team and could have scored more. After the chastening trip to Madrid, Guardiola decided he needed the legs and energy of youth and picked a starting XI with an average age of 24.7. Seven members of the team were 24 or under. Guardiola also picked three 20-year-olds in Rico Lewis, Savinho and Abdukodir Khusanov and his first substitution was to replace 33-year-old Kevin De Bruyne with 22-year-old James McAtee.
There’s plenty of talent in City’s core of young players, but there is naturally going to be an element of naivety. In particular, Guardiola will be furious with Liverpool’s first goal. It came from a well-worked corner routine with Alexis Mac Allister rolling a pass into the near post and Szoboszlai flicking it on and Salah finding acres of space in the penalty area to score via a deflection from Nathan Aké.
It was a crucial moment in the game and one where City’s relative lack of experience was telling. — Dawson
De Bruyne is fading fast
Kevin De Bruyne will go down as a blue-chip Premier League legend thanks to his incredible 10 years at Manchester City, but we are watching the final days of the midfielder’s time at the Etihad, and it is becoming a sad farewell for the 33-year-old.
De Bruyne, who has won 14 major honours including six Premier League titles with City, was substituted halfway through the second half by Guardiola after a nightmare performance against Liverpool. The Belgium international was wayward with his passes and couldn’t keep pace with Liverpool’s dynamic midfield of Ryan Gravenberch and Mac Allister.
When he was replaced by James McAtee it was inevitable, and his disconsolate walk to the touchline summed up De Bruyne’s frustration. Four days before this game, De Bruyne was named as a substitute in City’s must-win — they lost — Champions League playoff second leg against Real Madrid, and he has been a peripheral figure throughout this season.
With his contract due to expire in the summer and no new deal on the table, De Bruyne is fading fast. City have lots of problems to address, but replacing one of their best-ever players will be close to the top of the list. — Ogden
Salah is to Liverpool what Haaland has been to City
Salah took his goal tally for the season to 30 with the opener for Liverpool at the Etihad, and he also became the first player in Europe’s big five leagues to register 50 goal involvements this term by creating the second for Szoboszlai. Even though we still have three months of the season to play, Salah is now just two goal involvements away from breaking Luis Suárez’s club record of 43 in the Premier League.
There are no more superlatives left to describe Salah and his importance to Liverpool, who are cruising to the title. The Egypt international seems a certainty to win the individual Player of the Year awards and he will rival all of Real Madrid’s star players for this year’s Ballon d’Or.
But with Erling Haaland missing this game for Manchester City due to a knee injury, Salah’s contribution showed how he is as important to Liverpool as Haaland is to City. Guardiola’s side lacks a threat without Haaland, but because Salah rarely misses a game, we don’t really know how Liverpool would cope without him.
With Salah’s contract due to expire this summer, Liverpool really need to sort a new deal with the forward to delay having to find out what life without him could be like. — Ogden
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