13 incredible stats from Liverpool’s title-boosting 2-0 win over Man City
Liverpool opened up an 11-point gap between themselves and Manchester City after beating the Premier League champions 2-0 at Anfield on Sunday.
Arne Slot’s team went into the contest full of confidence after beating Real Madrid midweek, while City were reeling from a six-game winless run and throwing away a three-goal lead against Feyenoord.
And Liverpool started the contest with one of the best 15-minute spells produced by any team in recent years, full of pace and intensity that didn’t allow City a second to breathe. Cody Gakpo’s opener from Mohamed Salah’s cross was just reward for their dominance.
The game couldn’t sustain such a pace thereafter, with Liverpool consciously slowing themselves and City enjoying spells of uneasy possession.
Despite an improved second-half display, City self-destructed when Stefan Ortega wiped out Luis Diaz to give Liverpool a penalty. Salah tucked it home and the Reds could begin celebrating a huge victory.
Here are 13 stats from a match that might just have signified a changing of the guard at the top of English football.
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– This was the first Premier League fixture between Liverpool and Manchester City without either Alisson or Ederson starting in goal since March 2017 (Simon Mignolet & Willy Caballero).
– To underline Liverpool’s first-half superiority, Gakpo had more touches in the opposition box (8) than the entire Manchester City side combined (5).
– City only had one shot in the first half – something that has only happened twice under Guardiola’s management (vs. Liverpool in 2018 and vs. Manchester United in 2020).
– And their first shot attempt at Anfield came in the 39th minute; their longest wait for their first shot of a Premier League match since April 2010 versus Arsenal (58th minute).
– Salah has gone level with Wayne Rooney for the most times a player has both scored and assisted in a Premier League game in the competition’s history (36).
– The Egypt international has now scored 12 goals against teams managed by Pep Guardiola, at least three more than any other player.
– Salah now been directly involved in 64 goals in 74 Premier League games against Big Six opposition, with 45 goals and 19 assists in that time.
– Defeat at Anfield sees Guardiola and his side go seven games without a win for the first time in his managerial career.
– It is also the first time that Guardiola has lost four consecutive league games in his entire managerial career, stretching back to the summer of 2008.
– Guardiola has won just six of his 23 games against Liverpool across all competitions, with eight draws and nine defeats. Of opponents he’s faced more than five times in his managerial career, the Reds are the side he’s won the lowest percentage of his games against (26%).
– City have lost four consecutive Premier League matches for the first time since August 2008. That was in the pre-takeover years when Mark Hughes had just been appointed and Jo was the club’s big summer signing.
– But Liverpool are the real story here, nine points clear of the chasing pack on the first day of December. Only three times in the competition’s history has there been such a gap at the top this early and all three of those pace-setters went on to win the league.
– It is also Liverpool’s biggest margin as leaders in the competition since the final day of the 2019-20 campaign, the last time the Reds were champions of England.