Liverpool’s dominant win sends Man City back to pre-Guardiola level | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola is currently experiencing the toughest stretch of his managerial career after Liverpool defeated his Manchester City team 2-0 this afternoon.

Despite being the defending Premier League champions, few expected them to overcome the Reds, who had an eight-point lead heading into today’s match.

Following this loss, City’s position has now dropped to fifth, with Arsenal moving into second. Liverpool’s lead after 13 matches now stands at nine points, and with so much football still to play, Arne Slot and his team will not be counting their chickens just yet.

Whatever the reason, things have taken a turn for the worse. City suffered five consecutive losses before squandering a 3-0 lead against Feyenoord in the Champions League earlier this week, resulting in a 3-3 draw. It has now been seven matches since they last won a game, a situation that has never occurred in Guardiola’s illustrious coaching career.

In that aforementioned European Cup match, he witnessed his team fail to secure a victory despite being three goals ahead, marking the first time this has happened in his managerial career. Just a few days earlier, against Tottenham, who defeated City 4-0 on their home ground, Guardiola experienced his side losing five consecutive games for the first time in his managerial career.

Things did not get any better in Merseyside as today marked the first time since January 2011, when facing Wolves, that City dealt with seven shots in the opening 20 minutes of a Premier League match. Even more alarming, this also marks the first occasion since April 2012 that City trailed in four consecutive Premier League games, a streak that previously lasted five matches.

City have lost four consecutive Premier League matches for the first time since August 2008. This also marks the first time in Guardiola’s managerial career that he has experienced four straight league losses.

Today’s game could be seen as a passing of the torch. Mohamed Salah, the league’s most in-form player, scored and assisted in a Premier League match for the 36th time, equaling Wayne Rooney’s record for the most such performances in the competition’s history.

Salah’s assist for the opening goal was his 75th for Liverpool in the Premier League, allowing him to surpass Thierry Henry’s record of 74 assists for Arsenal, making him the player with the most assists for a single club in the league.

Cody Gakpo, who scored the opening goal, became the third Liverpool player this season with over 10 goal involvements across all competitions, adding to his tally of eight goals and two assists. He joins Salah, who has 24 goal involvements, and Luis Díaz, who has 11. Notably, no Premier League team has more players in double figures for goal contributions this season.

As touched upon, Liverpool are now nine points clear at the top of the Premier League; their biggest margin as leaders in the competition since the final day of the 2019-20 campaign, when they won their last title (18 points).