Quality Of Possession Provides Victory
On a wet night in Manchester, the Premier League's reigning champions Manchester City overpowered a Liverpool side bereft of confidence. A Brace from the in-form Stefan Jovetic and a cunning finish from World Cup runner-up Sergio Agüero put the Merseyside club to the swort, with only Pablo Zabaleta's unfortunate own-goal handing them any sort of consolation.
Liverpool started the game brightly with the upper hand on possession stats and were coming out on top of fifty-fifty tackles and aerial duals. However, despite thirty minutes of ball-domination, Liverpool's two best chances did not even break the sweat of English goalkeeper Joe Hart, who had a very uneventful game in nets. A typical Steven Gerrard long-ball found Raheem Sterling just inside the box with his back to goal but he was unable to turn comfortably and his shot rolled out for a goal kick. Raheem Sterling was involved in Liverpool's next chance as he cut in from the right wing which he had been operating from and picked out Daniel Sturridge who expertly got the better of Manchester City skipper Vincent Kompany but his shot was straight at Joe Hart who easily deflected it wide.
As the half progressed, Manchester City began to settle in to the game and the quality in their attack began to show. Samir Nasri made a show of Liverpool debutant Alberto Moreno on City's right wing, combining sheer physicality and graceful ball control to deceive and defeat the Spaniard. His cross was cleared by Lovren but only as far Zabaleta and City kept battered Liverpool's shaky defence like a relentless, stormy sea.
The killing blow came through a positional error from Dejan Lovren and poor awareness from Alberto Moreno. Stefan Jovetic played in a hopeful cross towards his strike-partner Dzeko but it was easily cut out by Dejan Lovren. However, he was well out of position and his header to team-mate Moreno was a little short as Jovetic pounced on the rebound while Moreno was still composing himself and powered a shot through the legs of the flailing Simon Mignolet to open the scoring and end the half on a high for the team in blue.
Many expected Liverpool to fight back in the second half but they returned to their nervy selves and City were exposing gaps in the final third far too often. The second goal was another gift as Liverpool gave the ball away cheaply and Edin Dzeko found Stefan Jovetic who powered a shot past a helpless Mignolet and a careless Glen Johnson, who foolishly abandoned marking the Montenegro attacker to cover the goal-line, which ended up hindering his own goalkeeper's chances of reaching the shot.
With the game surely put to bed, Brendan Rodgers brought on three of his summer acquisitions, one at a time, as Rickie Lambert, Lazar Markovic and Emre Can entered the fray. Sergio Agüero also entered the game for City as Dzeko limped off after seemingly being fouled by Martin Skrtel. However, the move brought an instant impact as it took Sergio Agüero just 23 seconds to find the net since coming on the pitch. Once again, Liverpool were exposed and Simon Mignolet was well out of position as Agüero rolled the ball in to the net for one of his easiest goals in the Premier League.
Liverpool did earn a consolation goal through a rare moment of quality from Daniel Sturridge. The striker did well on the right wing to open up space and played a tidy cross to the unmarked Rickie Lambert who's header was excellently saved by Joe Hart. However, the rebound took an unfortunate bounce off Pablo Zabaleta and despite Joe Hart's best attempts, the referee awarded a goal to Liverpool, with the aid of goal-line technology.
Despite conceding, Manchester City looked to grow in confidence and gave their fans something to be happy for, while Liverpool fans looked in despair as Glen Johnson was forced off with an injury and Martin Skrtel and Alberto Moreno both picked up damaging knocks. Quality of player proved to be the difference as Manchester City's ruthless attacks forced many mistakes out of Liverpool but a comparatively mediocre Liverpool line-up rarely forced the victors' hand.
This match showed a lot about both clubs; Manchester City are far superior to last year's runners-up. The recent arrival of Mario Balotelli will surely help Liverpool's cause but will this upset force Brendan Rodgers to dip his toes in to the transfer market once more?
