Erling Haaland scored his 99th Premier League goal as Manchester City comfortably beat Liverpool 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium. The result handed the Reds their fourth straight league defeat away from home, their worst run since 2012.
City looked full of confidence from the start. Goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili gave away a penalty after fouling Jérémy Doku, but he made up for it by saving Haaland’s spot-kick. City kept the pressure on, and after half an hour, Haaland finally opened the scoring with a header from Matheus Nunes’ cross.
Liverpool thought they had equalised before half-time through Virgil van Dijk, but the goal was ruled out for offside. Moments later, Nico González’s shot deflected off Van Dijk and into the net to make it 2-0 to City.
The visitors showed some fight in the second half, but Doku sealed the win with a brilliant curling shot to make it 3-0.
The victory was City’s seventh in eight matches in all competitions and moved them to within four points of leaders Arsenal. It was also a perfect way for Pep Guardiola to celebrate his 1,000th match as a manager.
Liverpool’s poor form continued, with Arne Slot’s side now losing six of their last seven domestic games. They drop to eighth in the table, four points behind the top four.
