da fezbet： If you didn’t believe that Manchester City were bona fide title contenders, well, you surely do now.
da apostaganha： On Sunday, the serial champions crushed the reigning champions 3-0 at the Etihad, doing so with plenty to spare.
Despite the fact Erling Haaland saw an early penalty saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili, this merely momentarily delayed the Sky Blues onslaught.
Haaland headed home the opener soon after, before Nico González’s deflected shot deservedly doubled the Citizens’ advantage in first-half injury time, with Jérémy Doku curling home a clinching third; more on the brilliant Belgian in a bit.
The match marked Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th match in management and took his tally to 716 wins, which isn’t bad.
Now eyeing a seventh Premier League title, Manchester City are just four points adrift leaders Arsenal, after Mikel Arteta’s team were denied victory at the Stadium of Light on Saturday night by Brian Brobbey’s last-gasp equaliser for Sunderland.
if Man City are going to become champions of the land once again, they’ll need two of their stars from Sunday to continue to perform.
Jérémy Doku's performance against Liverpool
As noted by Opta, Jérémy Doku won 11 duels, completed seven dribbles, created three chances and registered three shots on target against Liverpool.
If you think that sounds impressive, well, that’s because it is. He is the first player to rack up such an impressive figure in a single Premier League game since Eden Hazard against West Ham in April 2019.
Doku’s thunderous strike capped off the victory as well as his own sublime display, with Gary Neville, speaking during commentary for Sky Sports, saying never before had he awarded the player of the match after 62 minutes, until today.
David Hytner of the Guardian asserted that the winger was ‘unplayable’, praising his ‘blur of tricks and direct running’, with Doku tormenting Liverpool right-back Conor Bradley, the Northern Irishman having pocketed Vinícius Júnior just a few days before.
This was Doku’s 100th appearance in sky blue, scoring just his 17th goal for the club, previously netting against Napoli and Swansea this season, his previous Premier League goal coming at Portman Road against Ipswich in mid-January.
Now though, perhaps the 23-year-old is showing signs of realising his full potential so, while he was the obvious star of the show, an under-the-radar Man City player also deserves to be heralded for their display.
Pep Guardiola's unsung Man City hero
12 months ago, when Manchester City were in complete free fall, all the talk was about how this team cannot win without Rodri.
Well, despite enjoying a brief cameo off the bench against Bournemouth last weekend, the Ballon d’Or winner was not even in the matchday squad against Borussia Dortmund nor Liverpool subsequently, which was one of the major talking points prior to kick off on Sunday.
Nevertheless, Guardiola once described Nico González as like a “mini-Rodri”, and the midfielder helped ensure his compatriot was not missed.
Nico scored the second goal, a hammer blow for Arne Slot’s team coming on the cusp of half-time, and put in a generally imperious performance, as the numbers support.
Goals
1
1st
Accurate passes
51
3rd
Passing accuracy %
88%
5th*
Defensive actions
8
3rd
Tackles won
3
2nd
Duels won
6
4th
Ground duels won
5
3rd
Touches
72
2nd
SofaScore rating
8.3
2nd
*minimum 30 passes completed.
As the table highlights, the midfielder ranked in the top four when it came to a wide variety of statistics, registering more touches than any other player in sky blue, winning five of the six ground duels he contested as well as completing 51 of 58 passes. Truth be told, this was probably his best display in blue, dominating one of the best sides in the division.
The Manchester Evening News awarded him an 8/10 for his performance, noting that the Spaniard took ‘charge of the game’.
This, in truth, should not be overly surprising.
The midfielder joined from Porto back in January for around £50m and did so with a big reputation, given that he is a La Masia graduate, breaking into the Barcelona team with fellow mononymously known midfielders Pedri and Gavi, rated as highly as both when they were teenagers.
Nevertheless, it is still invaluable for Man City that Nico is able to take a step forward in his development and has the quality to operate as a one-man midfield, allowing their attacking stars, namely Doku, Haaland and others, to shine.
With Rodri and his obvious back-up Mateo Kovačić both struggling due to ongoing injury issues, while Tijjani Reijnders appears ill-suited to the role, Nico has been thrown in at the deep end in the number 6 position, but is gracefully swimming like a swan, rather than sinking like a heavy stone, to continue that analogy.
When Manchester City return to action after the international break, they’ll do so with a tricky trip to St James’ Park, but victory over Newcastle would cut the gap at the top to just one point, ahead of the North London derby the following day.
For the here and now, on the occasion of Guardiola’s 1,000 match as a manager, it was probably fitting that a diminutive Spanish defensive midfield shone.
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