On a squally, blustery day in the north, the kind of day when the branches of the trees on the Ashton New Road swayed and groaned and the fans walked to the ground with their heads bent low into the wind, Pep Guardiola paced and fretted his way along the touchline at the Etihad and watched Liverpool claim the crown that Manchester City have worn for the last four seasons.
Without anyone much noticing, Liverpool have weathered a storm these past few weeks, dropping points in dribs and drabs, losing at Plymouth in the FA Cup, losing a lead in the last minute in the cauldron of Goodison Park’s last Merseyside derby and drawing with Aston Villa. We watched them bend in that storm but they did not break.
And then they came here, to the home of the champions, the home of the team that has dominated English football more completely than any other team, the team that has denied Liverpool so much and so often in recent season.
And Arne Slot’s side dismissed City 2-0 through first half goals from Mo Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai with an ease that was contemptuous in the calm, authoritative manner of its execution, and moved 11 points clear of second-placed Arsenal at the top of the Premier League. And everyone knew it was over.
Because that will be enough. This inhospitable Sunday towards the end of February, when the drizzle fell on Arne Slot’s head and baptised him in his remarkable triumph in his first season as the successor to Jurgen Klopp, was the day that will be remembered as the day when Liverpool won the league.
Sure, 11-point deficits have been overhauled before. Newcastle blew a 12-point lead in 1995-96 and Manchester United blew an 11-point advantage in 1997-98 but the teams that overhauled them – the United of Sir Alex Ferguson and the Arsenal of Arsene Wenger – were very different sides to Liverpool’s forlorn pursuers this season.
Liverpool moved 11 points clear at the top of the Premier League with a dominant victory over Manchester City
Mohamed Salah delivered once against for the visitors with both a goal and an assist
He scored the first before setting up Dominik Szoboszlai to net the second goal in the first half
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal lost 1-0 at home to lowly West Ham on Saturday. Toothless in attack, betrayed by a lack of recruitment, even with a game in hand, they look utterly incapable of putting together the kind of relentless winning run that would put pressure on Slot’s Liverpool.
Nottingham Forest, the third-placed team, have had a fine season but conceded four goals in 12 minutes to Newcastle a couple of hours before Liverpool walked out at the Etihad. They are 17 points behind Liverpool anyway. They will not get close to Salah, Virgil van Dijk and company.
Enough about the opposition anyway. Liverpool have been simply too good this season. Slot has challenged the received wisdom that you should never be the man who follows the Man. He has taken the team that Klopp bequeathed him and improved it.
He has taken some of the emotion out of their play, perhaps, but he has turned them into a winning machine, a machine that ground the declining City into the mud and was way too accomplished and consistent for Arsenal, who will be bridesmaids again.
Liverpool have come through a series of games that were their toughest test and the next sequence offers some low-hanging fruit that includes Southampton and Leicester City. Some may protest this coronation is premature but the reality is they are home and dry.
Without being spectacular, there was something majestic about Liverpool’s victory here. Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate were imperious at the back, the best centre half pairing in the country. They repelled everything City threw at them. ‘This is what a title-winning performance looks like,’ Gary Neville said on Sky Sports.
Going forward, the combination of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Salah on the Liverpool right was unstoppable. Some of Alexander-Arnold’s passing was a delight. Salah was a thoroughbred, dancing down the wing, a player for whose talent the City defence had no answer. The crown may not actually sit on their heads yet, but everyone knows City passed the mantle to their successors here on this drab, gloomy evening.
Arne Slot has taken the Liverpool team Jurgen Klopp gave him and managed to make it better
He has turned them into a winning machine that ground the declining City into the mud
Virgil van Dijk (pictured) and Ibrahima Konate are the best centre half pairing in the country
City repeated a trick that they have come close to perfecting this team. They dominated swathes of the game while still managing to look impotent. They were without the injured Erling Haaland and John Stones, sure, but it was about more than that. City are yesterday’s heroes. The battle for them is to try to make the top five.
Their greatest delight in the Sunday gloom was when Curtis Jones had a second half goal ruled out for offside. That would have made the score 3-0. The match was already over by then but that is a measure of how far City have fallen. Their supporters are feeding off scraps now.
City had made the brighter start. In the way that Jeremy Doku teased Alexander-Arnold down Liverpool’s right flank and Kevin De Bruyne floated a beautiful pass to Savinho down the left, there were echoes of a glorious past.
But City could not make any of that early promise pay and when Liverpool won a corner in the 14th minute, they executed a wonderful set-piece that did not require wrestling or jostling or pushing or grabbing.
Alexis Mac Allister drilled the corner low to the near post, Szoboszlai ran to meet it and turned it round the corner towards the penalty spot where Salah was waiting to meet it. Salah’s first time shot deflected off Nathan Ake, beyond the reach of Ederson.
City attempted to recover from their setback and resumed their domination of the game. For one 15-minute spell, they had 78 per cent of possession and they thought they had equalised when Omar Marmoush swept a fine finish past Alisson. It was ruled out for offside.
Liverpool’s defence was resolute and City could not find a way past and eight minutes before half time, the visitors scored again. Alexander-Arnold drifted a sumptuous pass down the right to Salah and Salah turned Josko Gvardiol inside out before cutting the ball back to Szoboszlai. The Hungary forward had plenty of time to drill a left-foot shot past Ederson.
City rarely threatened to force their way back into the game. Marmoush dragged a decent opportunity wide early in the second half but van Dijk and Konate were more than equal to whatever little City could muster.
City, meanwhile, are yesterday’s heroes and the battle is for them to make the top five
City rarely threatened to force their way back into the game and are a team in decline
Liverpool fans sang that ‘we’re going to win the league’ – we will remember this day as the one they did