City delivered a commanding display to defeat the reigning champions 3-0 in Pep Guardiola’s landmark 1,000th match in charge. ..Continue Reading
Erling Haaland opened the scoring with a deflected header, moments after his penalty was stopped by Liverpool’s goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.
Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk thought he had equalised, but his header was controversially ruled out for offside due to Andy Robertson’s position.
The call drew criticism from pundits, and City capitalised by adding a second just before halftime through Nico Gonzalez.
Jeremy Doku sealed the win with a curling effort on the hour mark, helping City climb to second in the table.
Guardiola’s men, now four points behind Arsenal, appear poised to be the main threat to the Gunners’ title hopes.
Arsenal have been in excellent form this season, suffering only one defeat, but dropped points in a late 2-2 draw with Sunderland on Saturday.
Despite holding a four-point lead over City and sitting well above Liverpool in the standings, Rooney is backing Arsenal to end their 22-year wait for the title.
Asked about the title race on his BBC podcast, Rooney said: ‘I think it will be difficult for Liverpool now.
‘I know Arsenal dropped points at the weekend but you look at their form overall and the way Man City are coming into a great run, it will be difficult for Liverpool.
‘But it’s still early on the season so you never know. I just think Arsenal and Man City are the two favourites now.
‘Arsenal will be a little bit nervous about Man City coming up but I think it will be one of them two. I still probably edge towards Arsenal. I have Arsenal as slight favourites.’
Liverpool were crowned champions by a ten-point margin last season, but their current campaign has been far from smooth.
They’ve now lost five of their 11 league fixtures, falling eight points behind early leaders Arsenal.
After the defeat to City, Arne Slot said there’s no point discussing title ambitions until Liverpool return to their usual standards.
‘It was a very good start of the week and a very bad end to the week,’ Slot said. ‘Today, I don’t think, apart from that decision, that it was ever gong to be our game.
‘In general they were the better team – we need to improve – but I didn’t need this game to know this. I saw a team trying to come back into the game, but it wasn’t enough today and that is clear.
‘Last season when were eight points clear and it didn’t feel like it was done already.
‘We shouldn’t talk about the the number one position, we should focus on our performance that needs to be better.’
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