Liverpool 0-3 Manchester City: How It Happened
An hour of resistance at Anfield collapsed in minutes after Ryan Gravenberch's red card, and a perfect City made it six wins from six.
For an hour, Anfield held. Then one second yellow card turned a tense, goalless heavyweight fight into a procession — and Manchester City left Merseyside on Sunday with a 0-3 win, a perfect 18 points from six games, and top spot in the Premier League.
The hour that held
Liverpool were the better side for stretches of the first half. Gianluigi Donnarumma had to push away a Ryan Gravenberch drive from distance, Alexis Mac Allister curled narrowly wide, and at the other end Milos Kerkez cleared off the line, according to NBC Sports. It was 0-0 at the break and still 0-0 on the hour.
The turning point
Around the 62nd minute, Gravenberch was shown a second yellow for clipping Jeremy Doku well away from goal — a decision NBC Sports called harsh. City needed barely three minutes to cash in. Erling Haaland pounced on a loose ball after a deflected Doku effort to make it 1-0 in the 65th minute — his sixth goal in his last four appearances against Liverpool, per NBC Sports. Doku curled in the second from the left in the 68th, and Rayan Cherki finished the rout in the 78th, beating Alisson after Josko Gvardiol's flick-on, per VAVEL's match log.
What it means
Enzo Maresca's City are six for six and sitting on 18 points; Liverpool stay on nine, and NBC Sports notes this was Andoni Iraola's first defeat as Liverpool manager. The result also landed in a heavy week off the pitch: ESPN's live coverage billed this as City's first game since an independent commission found the club guilty of serious financial breaches — a verdict announced September 29 that City are appealing, with any sanction still to be decided, per Al Jazeera. On the pitch, at least, nothing has slowed them yet.