Mind the gap. It looks unbridgeable now: 11 points to Arsenal, a barely credible 20 to Manchester City. A title race that began with City as red-hot favourites could be almost over before February is. The dominant team this season, Liverpool were vastly superior at the Etihad Stadium.
With Arne Slot borrowing from Pep Guardiola’s tactical blueprint to outwit the master with his twin false nines, with the magnificent Mohamed Salah underlining his credentials to win the individual awards, with Dominik Szoboszlai delivering perhaps the finest display of his Liverpool career, with Virgil van Dijk marshalling a defence who had conceded too often in the last two-and-a-half months to deliver a display of defiance, this felt the victory that ended any doubt. A 20th league title is bound for Anfield.
A team who wobbled at Everton and Aston Villa made a statement at the Etihad. There have been a few from Slot’s side this season, the first on the other side of Manchester, the majority at Anfield. A double over City signalled the shift in the balance of power: from blue to red, Manchester to Merseyside.
For Liverpool, it was a first league win at the Etihad since 2015, for Guardiola a first top-flight defeat at home to them. For City, it has been a chastening few days, run ragged first by Kylian Mbappe and now Salah. There was a time when City were Europe’s and England’s best. Now they have suffered comprehensive defeats to the Champions League holders and the Premier League leaders in a few days. It has been a symbolic spell, showing the undignified decline from mighty to mediocre, the need for change and the difficulty in moving on. Guardiola left out Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan, men he called “legends of the club”, looking for fresh legs. Instead, he got fresh problems.
And the familiar feeling of defeat. As Liverpool extended their unbeaten run to 23 league games, City suffered a 14th loss in 27 matches in all competitions. They have conceded 51 goals in that time. By coincidence, Salah’s personal haul now stands at 51 for the season: reaching 30 goals, he has 21 assissts, too.