LIVERPOOL – Jeremy Doku moved infield from the left and sent the ball arcing towards the far top corner. Alisson could not reach it. Three minutes after Manchester City had finally broken through, Doku had supplied a second goal and left Liverpool facing a match that had changed faster than they could reorganise.
City’s 3-0 victory at Anfield on Sunday turned on Ryan Gravenberch’s dismissal in the 62nd minute. The Liverpool midfielder collected a second yellow card while trying to stop Doku launching a counter-attack. Erling Haaland scored in the 65th minute, Doku in the 68th and Rayan Cherki in the 78th, according to Sky Sports’ match report.
The result preserved City’s perfect start to the Premier League campaign and ended Liverpool’s unbeaten league run. Sky reported that Liverpool were now nine points behind the leaders. The score was emphatic; the path to it was not. Until the sending-off, City had found few clear routes through a contest that remained goalless.
Doku supplied more than the finish for the second goal. His running drew the foul that removed Gravenberch, and his next dribble into the penalty area sent the ball spinning into Haaland’s path. The striker drove a fierce shot into the left side of the net. City had converted the extra man into a lead almost immediately.
That response mattered because Liverpool had threatened to take control after the interval. Bradley Barcola pushed a pass forward to Lewis Koumas, whose shot deflected off Marc Guehi and needed a save from Gianluigi Donnarumma. Gravenberch then tested the goalkeeper from distance, and Alexis Mac Allister curled an effort narrowly wide.
Those chances gave the home crowd a reason to expect more than a defensive afternoon. Liverpool had been unable to create much before half-time, but their early second-half attacks forced Donnarumma to work. They were not already beaten when Gravenberch walked off. Their problem was how quickly City exploited what his departure left behind.
Haaland had missed an opportunity shortly before the dismissal. Antoine Semenyo’s reverse pass released him one-on-one with Alisson, but the Norwegian’s attempted dink drifted off target. His next opening was less delicate. Doku’s penetration created a loose ball in front of goal, and Haaland finished with power rather than trying to lift the ball over the goalkeeper.
Doku’s own goal then came from another move inside off the left flank. His curling shot found the opposite top corner, doubling the lead and making Liverpool’s task more than a matter of holding their shape until another chance arrived. They now needed two goals with a player missing from midfield.
Cherki completed the scoring ten minutes later. Josko Gvardiol flicked an assist into the close-range area, and Cherki converted. City had scored three goals within 13 minutes of the opener. Liverpool’s first league defeat of the season had become a substantial one in front of an attendance of 60,338, the club reported.
For Andoni Iraola, the personnel constraints had begun before kick-off. A hamstring complaint kept Dominik Szoboszlai out alongside the already sidelined Cody Gakpo and Alexander Isak. Iraola selected Koumas at the centre of the attack for the Wales international’s first Premier League start.
Koumas’s early second-half chance showed what Liverpool could still create despite those absences. It did not supply the goal that would have changed City’s calculations. Liverpool also failed to convert a Florian Wirtz set-piece that Mac Allister turned wide near the post. Once the red card came, the home side had no lead to defend.
The first half had offered little indication of a three-goal finish. Jeremy Jacquet intervened to stop Cherki, Matheus Nunes checked Barcola, and Victor Munoz had a cross-shot deflected behind. Mac Allister hooked a loose ball off target from a corner. City were similarly short of clear chances, though Enzo Fernandez made Alisson collect a snap-shot.
Enzo Maresca’s team had to withstand that unsettled beginning and another period of Liverpool pressure after the break. Afterwards, the City manager told Sky his players needed to handle hostile away atmospheres by producing their own response. “Our noise is to win games like today,” he said. “At the end of the game, it was just our fans and our noise.”
Haaland also stressed the work behind the result. “It was tough and it was hard,” he told Sky, praising the side’s character from Donnarumma through to the attack. His assessment fits the dividing line in the game better than the final score alone: City needed their goalkeeper before they could rely on their forwards.
Sky pundit Roy Keane credited Doku’s ability to run at defenders while acknowledging the advantage supplied by the dismissal. He also pointed to City’s strong start despite the departures of Pep Guardiola and Rodri. This victory added another result to Maresca’s early record without resolving every question surrounding the team.
Liverpool’s more immediate question concerns how to absorb the loss of a midfielder without losing the match in the next few minutes. City’s concerns are different: protecting a perfect league start while preserving the defensive work that allowed Doku to decide this contest. At Anfield, the sending-off opened the opportunity. City did not waste it.
