Manchester City managed to lower the volume of Liverpool’s heavy metal football on Saturday, but they could do nothing about Trent Alexander-Arnold’s bolt from the blue. The England international’s late sizzler snatched a 1-1 draw for the Reds against the run of play and ended City’s 23-game winning streak at home, after Erling Haaland had scored his 50th Premier League goal in record-breaking time.
After being left shell-shocked by the madness of their 4-4 draw with Chelsea before the international break, City sought to wrest back control of the play in this top-of-the-table clash and they did a pretty good job of it. Haaland sent City ahead in the first half and Ruben Dias thought he had doubled their lead after the break, only for the goal to be harshly ruled out for an apparent foul by Manuel Akanji on Alisson.
The Brazilian goalkeeper was all over the place throughout the match and escaped a number of near misses due to careless touches, as well as being too slow to get down for Haaland’s opening strike. He was bailed out by Alexander-Arnold, but City will be cursing the fact they did not add to their lead before then, as Julian Alvarez missed a glaring chance after being teed up by the electrifying Jeremy Doku.
The result may have felt unfair on City, but is a huge boost for the Premier League’s other title contenders, and a lift for neutrals hoping to see the title eventually escape the grasp of Pep Guardiola’s side.
90minsoccer breaks down the winners & losers from the Etihad Stadium…
Erling Haaland
Liverpool were one of just two Premier League teams that Haaland had failed to score against heading into this game, and the Norwegian looked fired up from the moment the whistle went. After steaming into every defender standing anywhere near him, the Norwegian pounced, latching on to Nathan Ake’s through-ball and drilling it under the hapless Alisson.
It was a fitting way to score his 50th Premier League goal, destroying Andy Cole’s record as the fastest player to reach the milestone, doing so in just 48 games compared to Cole’s 65 matches.
Haaland was not satisfied with his goal and looked determined to get another, coming very close to striking again in the second half. His all-action performance was all the more impressive given he had to leave international duty with Norway early with an ankle injury, and Guardiola admitted he had trained “with niggles” only two days before the game.
Julian Alvarez
The Argentine has had some fine moments this season, but he is now on something of a goal drought after failing to score in his last five appearances. And on Saturday, he just looked off the pace.
Early in the game he set the tone for what turned out to be a miserable performance by making a woeful touch in the box, sending the ball out of play and halting a promising move. But his worst moment of all was still to come. Doku presented him with a dream chance to kill the game off when he laid the ball off to him, but Alvarez inexplicably spooned it over the bar.
His low confidence levels were summed up when he took a free-kick in a dangerous position after Liverpool had equalised and sent it straight into the wall. Being Haaland’s strike partner cannot be easy, but right now Alvarez is not supplying the Norwegian with enough passes and looks incapable of finishing straightforward chances.
Trent Alexander-Arnold
There were plenty of eyes on Alexander-Arnold ahead of Saturday’s clash. The Liverpool full-back’s move to play more in midfield has largely been a successful one, with the Reds’ results undoubtedly improving as a result, while it has allowed Alexander-Arnold to re-establish himself in the England team.
However, with Jeremy Doku starting on the left of the City midfield, it was felt that Alexander-Arnold would be required to produce defensively more than he usually is. And so it proved, with City attacking almost exclusively down their left-hand side in the first half, with Doku pinning Alexander-Arnold back, even if their battle was a relatively even one.
In fact, the Liverpool man’s worst moment actually came when it was Ake driving forward, as Alexander-Arnold’s weak attempt at a challenge allowed the Dutchman to dribble past him and play the ball into the path of Haaland, who in turn gave City the lead.
Alexander-Arnold, then, needed to make amends, and in a game where he seemed to take inspiration from David Beckham, both in terms of his outrageous crossfield passes and his choice of adidas Predator boots, it was he who had the final say with an arrowed drive from the edge of the box that found the bottom corner, silenced the Etihad and secured a point for the Reds.
Doku did his best to try and create a winner in stoppage-time, but Alexander-Arnold and the rest of the Liverpool backline stood firm to make a statement in this most-engrossing of title races.
Alisson
There are few goalkeepers who are more dependable than Alisson in world football, and so his performance on Saturday was more than a little alarming. Whether the quick turnaround after returning from international duty with Brazil on the other side of the world had anything to do with it, only he will know, but even then some of his errors were inexcusable.
Usually so good with the ball at his feet, the ex-Roma man was all over the place in the first half when he picked up possession, and his pass out that landed at the feet of Phil Foden should really have been punished by the England star. He was then almost caught out by Haaland inside the six-yard box, though Curtis Jones’ poor pass had as much to do with that as Alisson’s lack of composure.
Eventually the ‘keeper was punished by Haaland, however. So often we have seen him unleash a sprinting Mohamed Salah with flat kicks out of his hands, but as Liverpool tried to break following a corner, Alisson this time sliced his clearance. Ake picked up the ball midway inside the visitors’ half and laid on Haaland to open the scoring with a shot that Liverpool’s No.13 will probably feel he should have tipped around the post given he got a hand to it.
Alisson went some way to redeeming himself before half-time with a strong save from Foden, but was fortunate not to concede a second midway through the second period after he spilled a corner and Ruben Dias tapped in at the back post. Manuel Akanji, however, was penalised for a very soft foul on the goalkeeper, and on another day that could easily have been two goals where Alisson was clearly at fault.
He ended the afternoon clutching his leg in his own penalty area after picking up what Klopp described as a minor injury, and Alisson will soon want to move on from what was arguably his worst display since joining Liverpool in 2018.
Jeremy Doku
The Belgian has been giving defences nightmares almost every time he has played for City, but the one criticism was that he was doing it against the likes of West Ham, Fulham and Brighton, not top-level opponents.
But against their greatest competitors and the second-placed team in the league, Doku was City’s most dangerous player by far. Every time he got the ball the he lifted the home fans off their feet and sent shivers down the Merseysider’s spine.
He demonstrated his frightening pace and dribbling ability, but also kept on making the right decision and was remarkably unselfish. It was a real shame from City’s point of view that Alvarez and Haaland could not finish off the perfectly crafted chances he gave them.
Darwin Nunez
As Haaland was again showing himself to be lethal in front of goal at one end, his opposite number Nunez again showcased why he can’t be depended on to fire the Reds to glory this term. Preferred to Cody Gakpo after starring for Uruguay during the international break, Nunez saw the bulk of Liverpool’s best chances fall at his feet, but he was unable to produce anything worthy of beating Ederson in the City goal.
The closest he came was with a flicked header that Ederson had to stretch to claw away early on, but otherwise the former Benfica man either made the wrong decision or was unable to get the ball under control when he found himself in a position to hurt City.
There’s no doubt that Nunez works hard, and the chaotic energy he brings to the Liverpool frontline makes him a handful for defenders even when he is having an off-day in front of goal. But in these giant, potentially title-deciding games, he has to take the opportunities he gets otherwise the Reds risk coming up short.
Nunez ended the day arguing with Guardiola on the touchline and being dragged away by Klopp. Whether he was just letting his frustrations at his own performance boil over, we might never know, but he will likely come away from the Etihad with plenty of regrets.
The chasing pack
We might only be 13 games into the season, but this title race already looks set to be one of the best in Premier League history, and Saturday’s result at the Etihad certainly gives those below City and Liverpool hope of maintaining their own challenges.
Arsenal can end the weekend on top of the pile if they beat Brentford later on Saturday, while Tottenham know a win over Aston Villa on Sunday would move them above Liverpool and level on points with City. Villa, for what it’s worth, would move level with Liverpool if they come out on top in north London.
Manchester United, Newcastle and even an improving Chelsea will still feel they can force themselves back into contention too, setting us up for an epic winter as the various challengers go back and forth in a battle for position ahead of the second half of the campaign.
