Haaland And Doku Shine As Man City Crush 10-Man Liverpool
Manchester City provided a devastating on-pitch response to the week of off-pitch drama, thrashing a 10-man Liverpool 3-0 at Anfield to keep their perfect Premier League run going. First time back on the pitch since the independent panel found the club in breach of 114 financial rules and they were met with a wall of noise. The Anfield crowd were absolutely on their game and the boos and abuse were relentless. City absorbed the early pressure and turned the abuse into motivation. The game split right down the middle in the 62nd minute. Iraola was obviously furious with the refereeing, particularly after Ryan Gravenberch picked up his second yellow for a challenge on Jeremy Doku. Liverpool were then reduced to 10 men and the visitors simply imploded under a sustained City attack. Three minutes after Gravenberch had gone, Doku was in the box and his driven effort was deflected to Erling Haaland who powered a left footed finish past Alisson. Haaland then immediately went over to the travelling supporters in the away end and was seen celebrating with Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher. Doku went from architect to executioner in the 68th minute with a beautiful long range effort into the top corner to put the score at 3. Rayan Cherki drove it home in the 78th minute. He allowed the ball to roll to Josko Gvardiol, spun into the box to collect the return pass and slot it home. That was the final blow and the home crowd went absolutely mad. 'We've shown real togetherness and fight' says City midfielder Elliot Anderson. 'We really stuck together out there, fought for each other and played well.' That defiance was on full display at the final whistle. Maresca and Haaland were pumping their arms up to the ecstatic away end who were waving around retro inflatable bananas, the home fans' chants of 'Going down!' still ringing out.  "We need to learn how to deal with the noise as the noise is going to be with us for all the away games. Make our noise and our noise is to win games." Iraola was very critical of the refereeing, with the first yellow card to Gravenberch being the moment that everything went off the rails. "Sixty minutes before the red card the players were absolutely excellent," he said. "The first yellow card was nothing. It was a normal foul with 20 players behind the ball." The result sees City three points clear of Arsenal at the top of the table with a maximum of 18 points. It also secures Maresca's name in the history books as he becomes just the fourth manager to win his first six Premier League games (the others being Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer). Liverpool slip to ninth after their first domestic defeat. City are in complete control of the title race but the cloud of the financial ruling (which they have formally appealed against) means the turbulence around the champions is by no means over.
