Manchester City played the spoilsport in Liverpool’s Premier League-winning party as the Blues of Manchester humiliated the newly-crowned champions 4-0 on Tuesday. It was the Reds’ first game since winning the title after 30 years and City gave Jurgen Klopp’s men all the reasons to forget the horrible 90 minutes they had to endure.
More than a victory, the result was also a clear display of City’s intention to regain the title next season as they went 3-0 up in the opening half itself to hand Liverpool their third Premier League defeat in 71 games.
Kevin de Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Phil Foden scored one each for Pep Guardiola’s team, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain got his name registered on the scoresheet for the wrong team.
Even though Liverpool still have a lead of 20 points at the top, their hope to break City’s record of 100 points in a single season took a major blow. The Anfield-based team are now stuck with 86 after 32 matches.
City began the evening by offering a guard of honour to the Premier League champions for their meticulous football in the league this season. The Reds have won 28 matches, drawn two and lost two this season.
They became the champions when seven matches were still left to be played and set a record of being crowned the earliest champion in the history of Premier League.
Early signs at the empty Etihad Stadium gave the belief that Liverpool would have it easy against the hosts. Both Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane wasted chances in the initial minutes.
However, it did not take them long to commit an error as Joe Gomez pulled Sterling down inside his own box and De Bruyne comfortably converted the resulting penalty in the 25th minute.
The next came within 10 minutes and this time Sterling made sure that he sent the ball into the back of the net. He turned inside Gomez and shot through his legs to complete a fantastic counter-attack.
The third goal was from Foden at the stroke of the half-time break when the 20-year-old combined with De Bruyne for a brilliant one-two, leaving Andy Robertson fooled. The sequence was followed by a lofted shot over the advancing Liverpool keeper Alison Becker.
But for the Brazilian gloveman, his day at the office could have been more embarrassing had Virgil van Dijk not cleared a deflected shot off Sterling from the goal line. However, it did not prove enough as Oxlade-Chamberlain mistakenly guided a wide shot off Sterling into his net in the 66th minute.