Anfield was ready long before kick off.
Flares lit up the streets around the ground as the team buses came down Anfield Road, and the home crowd had extra reason to be loud.
This was Manchester City’s first match since an independent commission found them guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules over a nine year period, a verdict the club are appealing.
Liverpool, so often City’s closest challengers across those years, were the hosts.
For an hour, Liverpool fed off that noise.
They spent long spells without the ball, with City finishing on 63 per cent possession, yet they carried the greater threat, and were the better team in open play.
Then, in the 62nd minute, Ryan Gravenberch tripped Jérémy Doku as City broke on the counter.
He had already been booked, and the second yellow left Liverpool with ten men in a goalless game.
What followed took six minutes.
Erling Haaland pounced on a loose ball after Doku’s shot to score in the 65th minute.
Doku, the man fouled for the red card, curled in a second three minutes later.
Rayan Cherki then finished a flowing team move on 78 minutes to seal a three goal win.
Liverpool were short before a ball was kicked.
Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo were both ruled out, and Dominik Szoboszlai missed the game with a hamstring problem.
That pushed young Lewis Koumas into the starting lineup up front, moved Victor Munoz onto the right wing and brought Gravenberch into midfield in Szoboszlai’s place.
City, by contrast, had Haaland and Antoine Semenyo fit to start, with Doku and Josko Gvardiol on the bench.
Andoni Iraola was left to explain how a game Liverpool had been controlling slipped away so quickly.
Speaking to Sky Sports, the Liverpool head coach said, “I’m very proud of my players.”
“It’s not easy to play the way we did. ”
“When you play with ten players, you can’t press, you’re already exhausted.”
About the red card, he added, “The first yellow card was just a kick in the toe.”
“It was nothing.”
“It was a normal foul.”
“It was the moment when we were pushing more.”
“The momentum was coming for us and the atmosphere in the stadium was so nice.
“We conceded…”
The table makes for uncomfortable reading.
Liverpool had come into the weekend sixth, unbeaten with two wins and three draws, and they remain on nine points after their first league defeat of the campaign.
City have now won six from six, sit three points clear at the top on 18 points, and have beaten Liverpool in four straight meetings.
Gravenberch now serves a one match ban, ruling him out of Saturday’s trip to Brentford.
With Szoboszlai’s return date unclear, Iraola could be without two of his first choice midfielders at the Gtech Community Stadium, before Brighton visit Anfield the following weekend.
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