KABUL (SW): Manchester City's unbeaten run is over after their thrilling 4-3 defeat by Liverpool on Sunday
It had been 284 days since Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City's last experienced a defeat in the Premier League. The run stretched 30 games and at least now the other teams towards the top of the table have been reminded the champions-in-waiting can be beaten, after all.
Liverpool’s 4-3 victory over Manchester City on Sunday to end their unbeaten Premier League run was the best statement the team could make following midfielder Philippe Coutinho’s big-money move to Barcelona, manager Juergen Klopp said. The Brazil international, Liverpool’s most potent creative force in the last fours seasons, joined the Spanish club for £142 million last week, but Klopp’s team made light of his absence against the runaway league leaders, Reuters reported.
“It was the right statement,” Klopp told a news conference. “It’s not that I said in a meeting, ‘boys it would help if you win tonight and no one speaks about Philippe Coutinho’, because we like to talk about him actually. He’s probably jumping in his new living room in Barcelona and will be happy about the win tonight. Of course, for us, it’s important to show we can play without him and we did it, so that’s a very important statement, absolutely.”
Liverpool had sufficiently weakened their opponents with the burst of goals from Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah in the 59th, 61st and 68th minutes. Yet City were even more careless at the back and, at this level, no team can expect to defend this generously and get away with it, the Guardian reported.
The only problem for Liverpool at 4-1 was that the game still had more than 20 minutes to go. Silva, one of City’s substitutes, turned in his team’s second goal after a lucky ricochet in the penalty area and when Gündogan prodded another one in, two minutes into stoppage time, it set up a nerve-shredding finale.
Yet the final result was a fair one. City had only four shots on target and Liverpool dominated long periods from the moment, nine minutes in, when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain eased unchallenged past Fernandinho and took his shot early, thumping the ball beyond Ederson with a low right-foot drive into the bottom corner, it added.
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