London: Liverpool scored three times in nine minutes on the way to a dramatic 4-3 win Sunday over Manchester City which ended the Premier League leaders’ unbeaten start to the season.
Liverpool struck after less than 10 minutes when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain surged forward from midfield to collect a neat lay-off from Roberto Firmino and send a low shot past City keeper Ederson.
Leroy Sane equalised shortly before the interval, but Liverpool blew City away after half time with Firmino chipping Ederson to restore the home side’s lead and Sadio Mane striking from the edge of the box.
Egypt international Mohamed Salah looked to have completed the rout when he collected Ederson’s clearance and sent the ball sailing back over the stranded keeper’s head, but Man City substitute Bernardo Silva grabbed one back and midfielder Ilkay Gundogan prodded home in stoppage-time.
City’s first league defeat in 23 games this season left them 15 points clear at the top, ahead of Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea.
“Congratulations to Liverpool for the victory,” City manager Pep Guardiola told ‘Sky Sports’.
“The game was in our hands at 1-1 but the reality is we lost the game. All credit to the opponent, we know how difficult it is against a Juergen Klopp team, so aggressive, at Anfield too. We did a good performance apart from a few minutes.”
Klopp was delighted with his team’s reaction to the departure of Coutinho. “He’s probably jumping in his new living room in Barcelona and will be happy about the win tonight,” the German said. “Of course, for us, it’s important to show we can play without him and we did it, so that’s a very important statement, absolutely.”
Reuters