Manchester City produced a commanding performance at Etihad Stadium to beat Liverpool 3-0, a result that combined clinical finishing with a dominant team display. The match carried added significance as Pep Guardiola marked his 1,000th managerial outing while City moved to second in the Premier League, four points behind Arsenal heading into the international break.<\/p>\n
The contest\u2019s defining individual display came from J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku, who was the game\u2019s most dangerous player and completed the victory with a stunning goal just past the hour. Doku repeatedly troubled Liverpool\u2019s right side throughout the contest and finished with a high rating from the home side.<\/p>\n
Erling Haaland had an eventful first half. He missed a penalty after Doku was fouled in the box, with Giorgi Mamardashvili saving the spot-kick. City did not falter: Matheus Nunes provided the cross for Haaland to head home his 14th Premier League goal of the season before the half-hour mark. Nico Gonz\u00e1lez added a second just before half time when his long-range effort deflected off Virgil van Dijk and beat Mamardashvili.<\/p>\n
Gianluigi Donnarumma was largely untroubled and made the saves needed when called upon. Matheus Nunes and Nico Gonz\u00e1lez were among the most impressive performers, contributing an assist and a goal respectively. Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden helped control the midfield and attack, while Nico O\u2019Reilly and R\u00faben Dias anchored the backline.<\/p>\n
City extended their control after half time and sealed the win with Doku\u2019s screamer. Liverpool, set up in a 4-2-3-1 with Hugo Ekitik\u00e9 leading the line, were unable to fashion clear chances late on. Substitutes Savinho (7) and Omar Marmoush (6.2) came on for City during the second half.<\/p>\n
The statistical story underlined City\u2019s superiority: possession 57% to 43%, expected goals 1.20 to 0.14 and four shots on target to none for Liverpool. Guardiola\u2019s side finished comfortably and with one of their stronger performances of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Doku led City’s 3-0 victory over Liverpool at the Etihad, a breathtaking goal and all-round display.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4375,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,1056,172],"tags":[1162,299,988],"class_list":["post-4376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-arne-slot","tag-bernardo-silva"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}