Pep Guardiola celebrated his 1,000th match as a manager in grand-style as Manchester City cruised to victory against Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.
The clash of two sides hoping to catch Premier League leaders Arsenal turned into a one-sided affair as City won 3-0 to go second and reduce the Gunners’ lead to four points.
City halted Liverpool’s recent mini-revival in its tracks, with Erling Haaland setting them on their way as he continued his remarkable scoring form with his 28th goal for club and country this season.
Haaland had wasted an earlier opportunity to give City the lead when his penalty was saved by Liverpool keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, who had been penalised for fouling Jeremy Doku.
The Norway striker, however made amends after 29 minutes with a soaring header into the right corner from Matheus Nunes’ cross, marking his 99th Premier League goal.
It was Haaland’s first goal against Liverpool in a match that Virgil van Dijk has started.
Liverpool were firmly second best throughout the first half, but a quality corner delivery from Mohamed Salah and an equally impressive header from Virgil van Dijk appeared to draw them level before the interval, only to be denied by a VAR check that found Andrew Robertson to be standing in an offside position.
Hopes that the Reds were turning the tide on recent poor results were fading fast, and City hammered home their superiority in first-half stoppage time, with Van Dijk dangling out a foot to deflect Nico Gonzalez’s low effort past Mamardashvili.
Jeremy Doku put the icing on the cake when he produced a moment of individual brilliance to extend City’s lead soon after the hour, curling a superb right-foot effort beyond Mamardashvili from 20 yards.
The result confirms a seventh win in eight games across all competitions for City, who moved to within four points of leaders Arsenal while Arne Slot’s side have now suffered defeats in six of their last seven domestic encounters and fall to eighth on the log.
