Three things we learned – Manchester City 3-0 Liverpool

Manchester Metropolis have been too good for Liverpool, as a Jeremy Doku impressed efficiency moved the Blues as much as second place within the Premier League desk.

After lacking a penalty inside the primary quarter-hour, Erling Haaland made amends with a looping header from a positive Matheus Nunes cross to present Metropolis the lead.

Liverpool then had a objective controversially dominated out, as Andrew Robertson was mentioned to be interfering with Metropolis keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma from an offside place, that means Virgil van Dijk’s header was disallowed.

Metropolis then doubled their lead in first half stoppage time and it was Nico Gonzalez along with his first objective of the season, a deflected effort from the sting of the penalty field off Liverpool captain Van Dijk to fallacious foot goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili.

Doku sealed the win in Pep Guardiola’s a thousandth recreation in administration within the second half, with a luxurious curling effort from the sting of the penalty field into the highest nook.

Listed below are three issues we realized as Metropolis cruised previous the Premier League champions:

Dazzling Doku is among the finest on the planet

I apologise for each damaging phrase I’ve ever mentioned about Doku, and consider me there have been a lot of them.

The Belgian winger didn’t have an ideal first two seasons on the membership, however within the Membership World Cup and at first of this season he’s appeared like a distinct participant, one who’s extra mature and makes higher selections while sustaining the maverick qualities that earned him his transfer to Manchester in 2023.

Towards Liverpool, he gave poor Connor Bradley, who by the way pocketed Vincius Junior in midweek, a completely torrid afternoon, and was unlucky to only come away with only one objective contribution.

His strike, a shimmy onto his proper foot and crisp effort from the sting of the field, is strictly what we’ve all been craving from Doku, and it appears to be like just like the 23-year-old is delivering the products on a way more constant foundation now for Metropolis.

The Blues have loads of competitors for areas in attacking areas, however Doku is placing his title together with Haaland as an undroppable participant within the nicely functioning Metropolis assault, and positively one of many main gamers on the planet on the left wing.

The total again conundrum has been solved

It looks like full again has been a relentless interval of change for Metropolis even amongst one of the best iterations of Guardiola’s Metropolis.

Kyle Walker, Joao Cancelo, Fabian Delph, Oleksander Zinchenko, Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Josko Gvardiol have all been common starters in that place in title successful groups, a reasonably excessive turnover in comparison with different positions (Ederson was the beginning goalkeeper for each title win to date beneath Pep.)

However in Matheus Nunes and Nico O’Reilly, Metropolis might need discovered a full again partnership that may final them for a couple of years.

Credit score to Guardiola’s teaching and Nunes himself, as a result of the Portuguese worldwide is a person reborn this season.

At 27 years outdated, he’s adequate to play at proper again for Metropolis, at the very least as a squad choice, for the subsequent few years. He’s athletic, fast, one vs one defender and is making his daft errors much less and fewer continuously.

O’Reilly on the opposite facet is the right Guardiola participant. Like Nunes, he’s a midfielder by commerce, so contributes quite a bit going forwards. He’s additionally a robust, clever defender who’s comfy coming into midfield or charging ahead down the left hand facet.

The 2 of them have had super begins to the season, and in the event that they preserve match and preserve taking part in nicely then they’ll contribute to success for Metropolis this season.

I’ve already apologised to Doku on this article, and now it’s time to apologise to Bernardo Silva.

In my put up match view of the 1-0 defeat to Aston Villa, I mentioned that Bernardo, together with John Stones, must now be phased out of the crew as he appears to be like set to depart on the finish of the season when his contract expires.

However, as he all the time does in opposition to Liverpool, Bernardo delivered yesterday.

The 31-year-old floated across the pitch, selecting the ball up on the again and on the sting of the field, taking part in the roaming playmaker position completely.

He by no means hides and continually will get caught in even when he’s not taking part in significantly nicely. Bernardo isn’t a flashy participant, definitely not anymore, however will get alongside along with his enterprise quietly and effectively.

He’s an absolute credit score to the membership as captain, wears his coronary heart on his sleeve and now the remainder of the crew is performing higher and Bernardo is much less fatigued, he can start exhibiting his huge ranges of high quality once more.