Manchester City celebrated Pep Guardiola’s 1000th game as a manager with a 3-0 win against Liverpool that put them back in the Premier League title race, while Nottingham Forest beat Leeds 3-1 to strengthen their relegation fight on Sunday.
Erling Haaland missed an early penalty at the Etihad Stadium, but the City striker made amends to give Guardiola’s team the lead.
Nico Gonzalez increased their lead before half-time and Jeremy Doku capped his man-of-the-match performance with City’s third goal in the second half.
It was the perfect way for the former boss of FC Barcelona and Bayern Munich to mark this new stage in a brilliant 17-year career, including 716 victories.
City, second in the standings, are only four points behind leaders Arsenal, who conceded an equalizing goal in the final seconds of their 2-2 draw at Sunderland on Saturday.
City’s seventh win in their last eight matches in all competitions dealt a major blow to Liverpool’s hopes of retaining the title. The struggling champions have lost seven of their last ten games in all competitions and are eight points behind Arsenal.
They are stuck in eighth place after the momentum from their back-to-back wins against Aston Villa and Real Madrid dissipated in the rainy Manchester air.
Haaland squandered a golden opportunity to put City ahead in the 12th minute when VAR ruled that Doku had been brought down by Liverpool goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili just inside the penalty area.
Mamardashvili redeemed himself by diving to his left to save Haaland’s penalty. But Haaland wasn’t fazed by his miss, and the Norwegian put City ahead in the 29th minute.
At the end of a fluid 20-pass sequence that took City from the back of their own half, Matheus Nunes crossed to Haaland, who rose above Ibrahima Konaté to head home from 10 yards.
It was Haaland’s 99th Premier League goal since joining from Borussia Dortmund in 2022. Haaland has scored 19 times in 15 games in all competitions for City this season, finding the net in all but two of them.
Virgil van Dijk’s late first-half headed equalizer was controversially disallowed by VAR for offside against Andrew Robertson. Liverpool manager Arne Slot was furious about the decision, and Gonzalez rubbed salt in the wound during first-half stoppage time.
Taking advantage of time and space thanks to Liverpool’s lethargic defense, Gonzalez unleashed a long-range shot that was deflected by Van Dijk. Doku delivered the final blow when he curled a superb shot past Mamardashvili from 25 yards in the 63rd minute.