Our 3️⃣ points as Liverpool make Man City pay in early snoozefest | OneFootball

Manchester City were made to rue for their missed chances as they could only draw 1-1 with Liverpool.

Erling Haaland had given the home side a first half lead but the points were shared thanks to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s lovely late equaliser.

More questions than answers

Before kick off, we had called this game not quite a ‘title-decider’ but a ‘title-indicator’.

Manchester City and Liverpool had been the two outstanding sides in the first third of this season and a meeting at the Etihad had all the ingredients of a potential classic.

It didn’t quite turn out like that.

The lunchtime kick off was clearly to blame for the lethargy – more on that later – but this was also a case of Man City failing to take their chances and Liverpool finishing theirs.

Jérémy Doku and Bernardo Silva were the two stand-out players for Pep Guardiola’s side with the Belgian winger getting everyone in east Manchester off their seat whenever he had the ball.

Silva meanwhile showed his usual technical class in the middle of the park but the hosts were left to rue their lack of potency in front of goal.

Phil Foden and Erling Haaland missed some good chances with Alisson and the VAR booth also coming to Liverpool’s rescue.

Jürgen Klopp’s men on the other hand struggled defensively as the aforementioned Doku took on Trent Alexander-Arnold at will.

But it was the English defender who had the last laugh with 10 minutes to go as his rasping effort from the edge of the area earned a share of the spoils.

This was, ultimately, a game that failed to live up to the hype and one that posed more questions than answers for both managers.

History-maker

What more is there to say about Erling Haaland?

It was, supposedly, touch and go as to whether the Norway international would even play today after his injury scare on international duty.

But Man City’s goal machine was named in the starting XI and almost immediately went about creating Premier League history.

After a quiet start to the match, Haaland scored with his first real effort on goal with just under half an hour gone.

The former Dortmund man found an inexplicable amount of space between Joel Matip and Virgil van Dijk, took a touch, and fired in a low effort past Alisson.

It was Haaland’s 50th goal in the Premier League and meant that the City man had created history in the English top flight.

With 48 games played, Haaland shattered the record for the least amount of games played to reach a half century, doing it in 15 games fewer than Andy Cole.

A truly remarkable record for a truly remarkable player.

Missed alarm calls

This was supposed to be a Premier League classic.

A game that everyone, even the neutrals, couldn’t wait to watch.

But what transpired was one of the most insipid and disappointing 90 minutes of the campaign so far.

Yes, Klopp likes to moan about early kick offs, but his annoyance was absolutely correct here.

It was clear from the 22 players on the pitch, that lengthy flights from far-flung international locations and a lunchtime start, turned this encounter into a snoozefest.

With very little time to prepare for this game following the national team window, we got a match that died a death after the break.

There’s very little reason as to why this game couldn’t have started later on Saturday and as such, we all suffered.