Man City decision costs them dearly in needless Liverpool FC defeat

Manchester City arrived for this fixture through streets already decked out for Halloween, and left Liverpool still haunted by the spectre of Anfield.

Mo Salah scored the only goal of the game to inflict the first defeat of the season on a defensive Blues outfit and prove Pep Guardiola right that Liverpool are still very much contenders to win the Premier League title. Defeat at Anfield may be nothing new but, given the form of the respective sides going into it, and the presence of the goalscoring phenomenon that is Erling Haaland wearing City colours, it felt like an opportunity missed to inflict serious damage on a Liverpool side already hurting.

City of course won here powerfully in 2020 when Phil Foden tore the home team apart, but with that game taking place behind closed doors due to Covid restrictions, the wait for the visiting fans to see a win at this ground is now set to stretch into a 21st season. More significantly for the team, a potential 16-point gap is now back down to 10 and Jurgen Klopp's challengers can take significant confidence from beating the Blues in the league for the first time since 2019.

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Guardiola, as he likes to do in this fixture, opted for caution in his selection. Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan were picked instead of a winger, and the Portugal international fulfilled his customary role in big games of flying about all over the place putting out fires predominantly from a holding midfield position.

City's manager has been burned before at this ground trying to get control of the midfield but it has never stopped his intention to win that battle, and there was definitely success here in the early