Manchester City weathered Erling Haaland’s absence to thrash rivals Liverpool 4-1, maintaining pressure on Premier League leaders Arsenal.
In a thrilling match on Saturday at the Etihad Stadium, goals from Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan early in the second half gave Manchester City a commanding lead before Jack Grealish sealed the triumph.
Mohamed Salah gave Liverpool an early lead; however, Julian Alvarez, who replaced Haaland in the XI, quickly equalized, with the visitors growing weary after the half.
Liverpool are used to being City’s chief title challengers themselves. However, the final score underlined the gap that has opened up between the clubs this season with champions City now 22 points ahead of the side that took them to the wire last year.
Much of the build-up to the game had focused on the fitness of the prolific Haaland, who has scored 42 goals in all competitions for City this season.
The Norwegian failed to recover from a groin problem in time but surely looked on with satisfaction from a private box as his team-mates excelled without him.
FULL-TIME | It’s good to be back! 🙌
🔵 4-1 🔴 #ManCity pic.twitter.com/L742pgPegf
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 1, 2023
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The hosts showed intent from early on with Gundogan getting into a good position only to miscue a volley, Rodri shooting at Alisson Becker and Riyad Mahrez curling a free-kick narrowly wide.
Yet Liverpool showed fight at first and, although Darwin Nunez was only deemed fit enough for a substitute role, were a danger on the break.
It was a thoroughly professional performance by City from a potentially difficult fixture but they will hope the wounded Reds can rally against Arsenal next week.
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