Five Things Learned: Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool (Premier League) | OneFootball

Manchester City put three goals past rivals Liverpool alongside a stellar performance from Jeremy Doku to close the gap on Arsenal at the top of the table to four points. 

Goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku at the Etihad Stadium ensured that Manchester City took all three points in Pep Guardiola’s 1000th match spanning across a stellar 18-year managerial career.

City started brilliantly and following a VAR check from referee Chris Kavanagh concerning a challenge from Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili on Doku, the Blues were correctly awarded a penalty.

Erling Haaland stepped up to take Manchester City’s first spot-kick of the season but was denied by Mamardashvili, who redeemed himself and made a fine stop to prevent the Norwegian in the 13th minute.

It was Manchester City who still continued to threaten though, and Jeremy Doku being at the centre of all of it by twisting and turning past Liverpool’s defence, and particularly right-back Conor Bradley.  

Just before the half hour mark, City got their reward and this time it was Erling Haaland who redeemed himself after he placed an excellent header into the bottom right corner from Matheus Nunes’ excellent cross from wide. The Norwegian’s 28th goal of the season in all competitions, and his 14th in the Premier League.

Liverpool did not pose too much of a threat in the first-half, but did have the ball in the back of the net six minutes before half-time from Virgil Van Dijk’s header. However, Andy Robertson was adjudged to be interfering with play from an offside position.

With seven minutes of stoppage time at the end of the first-half, there was time for City to get another goal of their own. Nico Gonzalez drove a low shot towards goal, and after a deflection from Van Dijk, the ball fell into the back of the net sending the Etihad Stadium into bedlam.

The second-half was more of the same with Manchester City dominating and putting Liverpool under some real pressure. Jeremy Doku produced even more magic with City’s third goal, receiving the ball from Nico O’Reilly on the edge of the penalty area, swivelling past the challenge of Ryan Gravenberch and curling a shot into the far corner to crown himself Player of the Match by the 63rd minute.

And that was enough for Manchester City to take the win and give Liverpool their fifth Premier League defeat of the season after just 11 games, meaning they have now lost more matches this campaign than last season in its entirety.  

Here are Five Things We Learned from Manchester City’s brilliant win over Liverpool on Sunday afternoon!

Jeremy Doku’s best outing in a Manchester City shirt

Scintillating. That’s the best word to use to describe Jeremy Doku’s performance against Liverpool. The Belgian was easily the best player on the pitch and every time he got the ball it was incredible to watch. The goal he scored in the second-half was a beauty to cap off his star showing, but even without the strike he was out of this world.

He created the most chances in the match (3), won the most duels (11) and completed the most dribbles (7). It is important to note that this incredible performance was all against arguably one of the toughest right-backs to play against as a winger at the moment in Conor Bradley, who received plaudits in midweek for his performance against Real Madrid’s Vinicius Jr.

A world class performance from Jeremy Doku and he continues his exceptional form this season. Speaking to broadcasters following the win, Doku expressed his desire to improve his game even more.

“I’ve got great players around me,” said Doku. “They push me every day because they believe in me, and that also gives me the feeling that I have to do more every game, and every day I want to improve. And having teammates like that makes it easier.” 

Matheus Nunes’ brilliant run of form

Matheus Nunes is a player who has been criticised on occasions throughout his Manchester City career to date, but that has not been the case in the last few games of this season.

The Portuguese international is making the right-back position his own despite naturally being a midfielder, but Nunes has never looked more comfortable in a Manchester City shirt as he has done lately. He is really starting to prove himself as a key player in this side and makes things look easy. 

It is credit to none other than Pep Guardiola as well for seeing Nunes’ quality to play him in a role that he has not played in before. The Catalan has trusted Nunes heavily in the right-back role and the defender is repaying that faith.

Defensively solid and a threat going forward, as seen by providing a brilliant cross to assist Manchester City’s first with a fine header from Erling Haaland, the 27-year-old is starting to prove a lot of fans wrong who have doubted his ability at times.

A win in Pep Guardiola’s 1000th match

It was a special way to mark a special occasion for Pep Guardiola, winning his 1000th match as a manager, against one of his biggest rivals during his managerial career.

It was also his 550th match in charge of Manchester City, who he has now spent nine years of his career with. It feels like a blessing that he has spent more than double the amount of games at City than anywhere else, especially considering his achievements at his beloved Barcelona.

When he joined the club back in the summer of 2016, I’m sure no one really expected him to still be managing the Blues in 2025. But that is the reality that we have been blessed with by a true great of the sport.

The 54-year-old has won 40 major trophies so far in his managerial career, averaging a trophy every 25 games. It’s insanity. And that’s not even including the countless records his teams have broken, and he has broken himself.

His contract with the club is due to expire at the end of the 2026/27 season, but it’s hard to not see Guardiola at City. In my opinion, we have the greatest manager of all time at the club.

Guardiola expressed his gratitude towards City after his 1000th managerial match, telling BBC Sport, “I’m so proud to do it here in Manchester, in my city.”

The Premier League title race is ON!

Four points. That’s the gap between Arsenal and Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table now, a gap that has been sliced following Mikel Arteta’s side’s slip up away to Sunderland on Saturday evening and a gap that City took the opportunity to close by thumping the current Champions.

Don’t get me wrong, this Arsenal side are going to be hard to beat to the title; an organised and controlled machine that just seem to pick up wins as if they are nothing. But we’ve seen this before first hand.

2022/23, Arsenal top at Christmas, 10 points clear at one point, but towards the end of the season they appeared to crumble under pressure. And Manchester City closed the gap out of nowhere and went on to win the top-flight with two games to spare.

We saw a very similar thing in the 2023/24 season, this time Liverpool were involved as well. I’m not saying that this will definitely happen again, but when Manchester City are chasing you, it’s hard to outrun them.

The Blues just look miles better than last season’s anomaly and Sunday afternoon felt like the times we would see City sweep away teams in previous season. Liverpool barely had a sniff, and yes they have issues at the moment, losing seven out of the last 10 matches in all competitions. But form largely goes out of the window in matches like this one. City performed brilliantly and have done for most of the season. Arsenal may be looking over their shoulders a little bit more now. 

Nico and Nico (again!)

I heaped praise on these two on Wednesday night after the 4-1 win against Borussia Dortmund, but feel obliged to do the same again. Starting with Nico O’Reilly, he was nothing short of incredible, barely giving one of the best wingers the Premier League has ever seen a sniff of goal and was beating the Egyptian in every battle.

Similarly to Matheus Nunes on the other flank, O’Reilly is not a natural left-back but has settled in excellently into the role, called up to the England squad once again for their upcoming fixtures against Serbia and Albania, and many would be shocked if Thomas Tuchel does not hand him his first England appearance in the coming fortnight.

O’reilly told the club’s official media team after the match on ‘not giving Mo Salah much’ throughout the game,  “I came into the game thinking this would be the outcome. I know how good he is, but I studied his game and what he’d want to do. I knew how strong he was already. But to keep him quiet, it’ll always help the team.” 

As for Nico Gonzalez, where do I start?

What a player and still just 23-years-old, getting better and better every time he plays. The Spaniard added a goal to his performance against Liverpool with a brilliant strike deflected in by Virgil Van Dijk – his third for the Sky Blues.

The Barcelona Academy graduate was so quick to win the ball back after Manchester City lost it on occasions and is filling the gap left by an injured Rodri brilliantly, to the point where it will be a tough choice for Pep Guardiola whether to drop the midfielder when Rodri returns.