Liverpool beat Man City to go 11 points clear at top of Premier League

Published By The Statesman For The Statesman Digital
3 hours ago

Mohamed Salah starred once more as Liverpool opened up a massive 11 point gap at the top of the Premier League with a comfortable 2-0 win over reigning champions Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.

It was the hosts who began on the front foot, with Jeremy Doku terrorising Trent Alexander-Arnold in the opening five minutes.

City continued to see most of the ball, with their decision to play with Phil Foden as a false nine seeming to have caught Liverpool out in the early phases.

But from a mistake at the back, Liverpool forced a corner and from it the ball was cut back to Mo Salah, who made no mistake from 12 yards out to put the Premier League leaders ahead against the run of play.

Guardiola's side searched for a response, but could not find a way to penetrate a menacing Liverpool block, with the home side reduced to shots from distance.

They thought that they had bought themselves level on the half hour mark after a fine finish from their own Egyptian Omar Marmoush, only to be denied by the offside flag.

And that mistake was punished six minutes later as Salah turned provider, teeing up Dominik Szoboszlai to poke fire past Ederson to double Liverpool's advantage 10 minutes before half time.

The game threatened to open up in the second half as City pushed for a goal back, leaving massive spaced for Liverpool to run into.

And 10 minutes in, they survived a massive scare after Szoboszlai squared the ball to Jones for a tap in, only for VAR to rule it out for offside.

City looked to make the most of that let off, but despite continuing to have the vast majority of the ball, they could not put any sustained pressure on the Liverpool backline, who were comfortable for the most part.

In fact, Liverpool came closer to adding a third seven minutes from time as Salah and Szoboszlai combined only for Khusanov to make a last ditch sliding block to deny the Hungarian.

But the game petered out in the closing stages, with Liverpool easing to all three points and taking a giant step towards title success.