Daniel Storey: Five things we learned during Manchester City's win over Liverpool

Was this the date the Premier League title race was decided?

VICTORY CHARGE: Ilkay Gundogan celebrates
scoring the opening goal for Manchester City against Liverpool at Anfield. Picture: PA

Manchester City surely win the title now

Manchester City had not won at Anfield since 2003. That ground, this opponent, have been their bête noire. They conceded a reckless penalty to allow Liverpool back into the match, which so easily could have derailed them. And they produced an astonishing response. Of course they were helped out by Alisson’s brainfades, but it was City’s intent to press high up the pitch that forced those errors.

That must surely be that for the Premier League title race; City are five points clear at the top with a game in hand. They have a tricky run of fixtures to come in the league and must juggle it with the resumption of the Champions League and progress in the domestic cups, but none of those produce anywhere close to enough reasons to doubt them when they are playing like this.

And we must recognise Pep Guardiola’s brilliance again. There were questions asked — not unreasonably — when they started this season slowly after the limp defence of their title in 2019/20. But Guardiola has hit upon an attacking system that flourishes without Kevin de Bruyne and Sergio Aguero and has tightened up the defence for good measure. We wondered whether Guardiola was able to create a dynasty in which two great teams were formed to follow one another. And now we have our answer.

Phil Foden enjoys his coronation

Phil Foden has long felt like the canary down the mine of England’s young footballers. If a talent as prodigious as his couldn’t wrestle his way to prominence at an elite club, this would be proof that the pathways simply do not exist. We need not have worried. Talent always finds a way.

Foden may already be England’s most composed midfielder and is already capable of playing in four or five roles in the space of the same match. When he was presented the ball by Alisson he had an opportunity to create a goal, but these unrehearsed, unexpected moments are when attacking players are most likely to make the wrong decision. Not only did Foden make several perfect decisions, he pulled off each one perfectly too.

At just 20, the world really is at Foden’s feet. There was great sorrow from Manchester City supporters when they said goodbye to David Silva, but he has passed on the mantle to Foden and allowed him to step out of his limelight. At Anfield, it really did feel like we had witnessed a coronation.

Liverpool’s defensive experiment will surely end now

You can understand why Jurgen Klopp didn’t wish to hand a debut to one of his January window arrivals against the form team in Europe, but this was proof that the experiment of playing two midfielders as centre-backs has run its course.

Jordan Henderson at least attempted to play penetrative passes in the first half, but then he can do that in midfield. Fabinho was run ragged by Foden and Raheem Sterling, who finally enjoyed a return to Anfield. Fabinho also gave away the first-half penalty and never looked secure without a focal-point centre forward to look after.

Neither Ozan Kabak nor Ben Davies were intended to be first-choice in Liverpool’s first team and neither would have been signed in January were Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez both still fit. But needs must; Liverpool miss Henderson in midfield and Fabinho’s form in the role is understandably wavering. Expect Kabak to start from now on.

Typical fast Liverpool start conspicuous by its absence

Liverpool’s success against City over the last two years has been defined by their fast starts. Since January 2018, they have scored against them in the sixth, ninth, 12th and 13th minutes. Was their best hope of beating them to replicate the same?

However, with a makeshift defence, without much form at Anfield and without a raucous home crowd to roar them on, Liverpool went for a more risk-averse approach. Three times in the first 20 minutes they won the ball in the opposition half but chose to play passes back into defence to start the move from scratch rather than attack City at pace.

City also seemed a little confused by Liverpool’s early lack of attacking intent. They too sat back, as if expecting an onslaught that never really came. It gave the opening passages an unusually (for this fixture at least) low-key feel, like a boxing contest in which body shots and jabs are attempted rather than any wild throws to the face.

Manchester City miss another crucial penalty

City are brilliant at so many things that their inability to score penalties only becomes more comical.

After Riyad Mahrez skied his penalty over the bar at Anfield in October 2018 and De Bruyne put his wide in the reverse fixture at the Etihad, this time it was Ilkay Gundogan’s turn to inexplicably miss the target.

It was created by a piece of Sterling brilliance, dipping past Trent Alexander-Arnold and felled by Fabinho’s trailing back leg. But Gundogan seemed to deliberately loft the ball and succeeded only in planting it two yards over Alisson’s bar.

Perhaps Gundogan was unnerved by Alisson’s good guess, seeing the goalkeeper moving to his right and therefore feeling that he needed to lift the ball higher than he would like to get past the Brazilian’s outstretched arm. But City have missed so many penalties over the last two years that just as likely is that it has become a bizarre psychological blind spot.

There is a solution, of course. Last January, Guardiola revealed that Ederson was City’s most adept penalty taker in training, sparking rumours that he could take over responsibilities to join that select crew of goalkeepers given set-piece duties. It can’t be worse than this, surely?