- Stevan Jovetic opened the scoring in the 41st minute after Alberto Moreno's mistake inside the penalty area
- Jovetic then doubled the lead, starting and finishing a move involving Samir Nasri, after half-time
- Sergio Aguero took 23 seconds to score after coming on to make it 3-0 to City at the Etihad Stadium
- Rickie Lambert's scrambled rebound in the box went in off Pablo Zabaleta for an own goal late on
- Mario Balotelli was in attendance at the Etihad Stadium hours after completing his £16million move to Liverpool
It took 23
seconds. Sergio Aguero stepped onto the pitch and, 23 seconds later, the
match was over. As Manchester City’s third goal hit the net, Liverpool
were done. So close last season, the gulf between the two clubs looked
significant on Monday night. There, in Aguero’s goal, Manchester City’s
power was encapsulated.
It
takes 23 seconds for blood to circulate around the body, but City’s
power in the second-half might have frozen it in Liverpool’s veins. No
other club in the Premier League has these options. There are some
useful teams about this season, but not with City’s irresistible
strength in depth.
To
replace David Silva with Jesus Navas, and Edin Dzeko – who may be out
for a short while with an injury to his left thigh – with Aguero, is not
an option open to any manager bar Manuel Pellegrini. That the two
arrivals then combined to take the game beyond Liverpool’s reach merely
underlined those incredible resources. Manchester City have a great team
– but if you don’t like it, don’t worry, they’ve got another almost as
good.
The
second-half display, certainly, was as impressive as it was ominous, as
were the bald facts of this victory. Liverpool are the third biggest
spending club in the world this summer, after Manchester United and
Barcelona, yet they were undone by City’s fourth choice striker.
Not
Aguero – he was merely the icing on the cake – but Stevan Jovetic, the
Montenegrin purchased from Fiorentina in 2013 but as yet thwarted by
injury and a queue of expensive strikers during his time in Manchester.
Not
anymore, it would seem. Paul Scholes, among others, has been calling
this as Jovetic’s year and his two goals against such well-fancied
opposition, suggested he may be right.
It
is not the first time Jovetic has tormented Liverpool either. In 2009,
he scored both goals as Fiorentina helped to dump them out of the
Champions League – the last time they competed in the competition before
this season.
Back
then, a teenage Jovetic was making his name as one of Europe’s most
promising young strikers – now he is a real force, still only 24, but
coming to the peak of his powers. He took his two goals magnificently,
and the second was quite exceptional.
Liverpool
enjoyed a promising first-half, and Joe Hart was kept busy in the City
goal, even if most of his work was collecting and mopping up, rather
than being forced into saves.
The
problem was that City have a defence which, at its best, is capable of
keeping dangerous opponents at bay for long periods, while some in the
Liverpool ranks are still familiarising themselves with Premier League
football at elite level.
Left-back Alberto Moreno, for instance, was playing his first game following a £15m transfer from Sevilla, and it showed.
After
a solid start, he was at fault for City’s opening goal, scored after 41
minutes, surprised by the sheer pace and physicality of the move. This
is a league in which even a moment’s pause can be fatal, and Moreno
blinked
After a
dormant spell lasting close to half an hour, City burst into life. Samir
Nasri played arguably the finest pass of the match to Silva from the
right, and the Spaniard held it up superbly before laying the ball back
to the onrushing Jovetic.
He
sped past Moreno who appeared startled by his simple initiative and,
before Dejan Lovren had time to adequately cover, Jovetic struck the
ball with venom through the legs of goalkeeper Simon Mignolet.
It
was a goal like a lightning strike, explosive, powerful and
devastating. Liverpool had plenty of possession and some nice approaches
to goal, but nothing like this. When they hit top gear, City were at a
different level.
It
was Jovetic’s second, however, that caught the eye and imagination in
equal measure. It was a 19 pass move, which is in itself impressive, but
the final three exchanges were the flourish that brought the crowd to
its feet.
Jovetic
fed the ball to Nasri, and made an intuitive run for the return pass,
which arrived perfectly and was dispatched with a beautiful finality.
Not everything may change around Manchester City this season – maybe not
their final league position, if they continue to build on this – but
the pecking order of the strikers is likely to be fluid.
When
Dzeko suffered his injury after 68 minutes, the fans were initially
torn between saluting his manly effort, and delighting in Aguero’s
return.
By the time
Navas had taken out five Liverpool players with one pass, and Aguero had
fired the ball past Mignolet with his first touch of the game, their
minds were made up. This was a good news day, no doubt about it –
although the fans of 19 other clubs may beg to differ.
Mario
Balotelli or not, Liverpool have their work cut out from here. Sunday
brings a visit to Tottenham Hotspur, the early league leaders and a club
looking to break into at least the top four under Mauricio Pochettino.
Lose
there and it will be impossible to view their title claims favourably,
and they have already drifted out to 16-1. Tottenham under Andre
Villas-Boas last season showed how hard it was to lose a great player
and adequately assimilate a large group of replacements.
Liverpool
are now trying to prove that selling Elvis and buying The Beatles can
work, but while the first-half showed signs of a tunefulness emerging,
there was little melody beyond half-time.
Losing your
best players, no matter the fee, is rarely successful – not for
Tottenham with Gareth Bale, and maybe not for Liverpool with Luis
Suarez, although he would have been banned from this match anyway.
Liverpool had good possession but lacked the magic that happened when
City got close to goal. Suarez was a magician.
A
late 83rd minute own goal from Pablo Zabaleta made the scoreline looked
closer than the reality. Hart produced a brilliant save from a Rickie
Lambert header and was desperately unlucky that the ball was then
bundled over the line by his team-mate.
Lambert
had another chance wasted almost immediately, and Daniel Sturridge went
close in the first-half, too, yet Liverpool lacked the clinical touch
demonstrated by Manchester City.
Every
club likes to think it will grow stronger as the season progresses, and
this may well be true of Liverpool, and Manchester United. But when the
champions say there is more where this came from, that message is
ominous. Nobody is waiting for the cavalry to arrive at City. It is
already here, and on the charge.
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