Manchester City Collect First League Double Over Liverpool in 89 Years Through Thrilling 2-1 Victory

As Winter is slowly beginning to ebb away, the 2025/26 Premier League title race turned up the temperature inside a packed Anfield as Manchester City narrow frontrunner, Arsenal's league advantage to just six points, Sunday evening with a thrilling 2-1 win over sixth-place Liverpool. 

Through the first 45 minutes, City looked to have been reeling back the years with waves of continous pressure and a constricting press which hardly let the Merseyside club out of their own half, as Pep Guardiola's side dominated with 61% possesion, while also heaping on 10 shots —three on target— in comparison to Liverpool's paltry three shots which included none on target. 

Despite City's statistical dominance, chances came few and far between, with the only clear-cut opportunity coming to Erling Haaland 87 seconds in, thanks to a diagonal run and a threaded pass from Bernardo Silva. Haaland could not get the ball away from his feet fast enough before Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson swooped in and deflected the Norwegian's strike away from danger. 

"First half, City were the better team on the pitch...They played easier with the ball," quoted Liverpool manager Arne Slot, whose side faced 10 shots in the opening half of a league match at Anfield for the first time since the 2003-04 season. 

With the score knotted at 0-0, Liverpool came out of the gates in the second half with much more pressure. While in the first period, City were hardly bothered by Liverpool's man-to-man pressing structure, oftentimes circling the ball around a banked-up backline before relaying the ball to the midfield, the second half saw much more zip to Liverpool's energetic press, which was cheered on thanks to a noisy Kop. 

Within the first seven minutes of the second half, Liverpool created their first real chance of the match, thanks to a mazing run from Florian Wirtz inside the City box which drew defenders near, leading to a pass to an open and off-balanced Hugo Ekitike strike which just missed the right post. 

Minutes later, Ekitike was offered a second bite at the cherry on a counterattack which saw Wirtz darting ahead of Ekitike inside the City box; however, the Frenchman opted for the harder pass on his left, to Egyptian Mohamed Salah, forcing Salah to trivela a pass to the head of Ekitike, who pushed his effort past the post of City goaltender Gianluigi Donnarumma.

According to Slot, the most controversial moment of the match came in the 68th minute when Dominik Szoboszlai threaded an incisive pass just outside the right corner of the box to the sprinting Salah, before Salah was carefully pulled down by recent City arrival Marc Guehi, however it was deemed that the foul occurred just outside the box, turning a possible penalty into a tightly-angled free kick. 

"If you follow the rulebook and you have a clear shirt-pull from [Marc] Guehi on Mo Salah, who for eight years is scoring that ball every single time - 100 out of 100 times he scores that goal, a bit exaggerated - and that is not a red card, then there is more of my frustration."

Liverpool found the eventual breakthrough from an outstanding Szoboszlai-centered free kick situated from what felt like a galaxy away from Donnarumma, where the deadball specialist knuckled his right-footed effort off Donnarumma's left post before rippling the back of the net, to give Liverpool a 1-0 lead with 16 minutes to play. 

As the title holders began to shut up shop for the rest of the match, it would take a deflected cross from the recently-introduced Rayan Cherki, which then bounced off the head of Haaland, and then found the dangling left foot of Silva to equalize the game with seven minutes to play. 

With both teams then feeling the impetus to find the dagger, it was the run of former Wolverhampton midfielder Matheus Nunes who sliced through an open gap left by the Liverpool defense, forcing Alisson to sprawl himself towards the right back, colliding with Nunes and leading to a Haaland penalty in the 91st-minute. 

With the pressure of a collapsing title charge weighing on the broad shoulders of Haaland, the 25-year-old coolly shuffled his spotkick past the Brazilian keeper, ushering in three points to City. 

Liverpool would struggle to find a clean chance to tie the affair; however, one Alexis Mac Allister 90+9'- minute deflected shot from outside the box required every inch from the Italian to parry the ball out of play in what looked like a guaranteed goal, as Donnarumma was tripped up after having to change his angle of dive thanks to the deflection. 

With seconds left in the match and Liverpool having been forced to push up Alisson to add extra players to their attack, the home side conceeded what looked to have been a third goal with an open net facing Cherki, yet Cherki' slow-rolling shot was nearly caught by Haaland to ensure the finish before Szoboszlai attempted to pull Haaland down resulting in a City free kick and a red card for the Hungarian, which means he will miss the upcoming match.

Sunday's thriller results means City are still well behind expected winners Arsenal, who cruised past Sunderland in a 3-0 win at the Emirates earlier this weekend to collect their 56th point of the season, leaving Guardiola to say post-match, "All we can do is be brave. Be on the neck of Arsenal. If they slip or make something, use it."