Liverpool on rise as City’s empire crumbles, United win again, Zhou named driver of day
A 2-0 defeat at Anfield leaves the Premier League champions 11 points adrift of the leaders and Pep Guardiola clinging to past glories
It’s probably a bit early in the week, let alone the morning, to be thinking about Shelly’s Ozymandias, its potential links to the Coldplay hit Viva La Vida and Manchester City, but the decline of another sporting empire does raise questions about the ephemeral nature of power.
Certainly there is no fear in the eyes of Pep Guardiola’s rivals any more, and the pillars of (Qatari) sand on which success over the past decade has been built appear to be crumbling.
And even though the old king isn’t yet dead, an ancient power is rising again to the west, which is where we’ll start today’s recap of what happened overnight.
When I ruled the world
One of the signs of a falling empire is its citizens hanging onto past glories; Guardiola’s response to Liverpool fans suggesting he might be out of work soon was to hold up six fingers signifying the Premier League titles he has won.
On the evidence of his side’s 2-0 defeat at Anfield, there won’t be a seventh. Not so much beaten, as swept aside by a red wave, City have lost seven games in a row, are down in fifth and are 11 points behind Arne Slot’s men.
Cody Gakpo scored in the 12th minute, Mohamed Salah added a second in the 78th from the penalty spot, and in between there were two glaring misses from Virgil van Dijk.
Slot, who has won 18 of his 20 games in charge, said he wasn’t going to “get carried away by one or two wins”, and cautioned that Arsenal and Chelsea were both capable of putting together a challenge. The Dutchman’s rivals though would be forgiven for looking with despair at his mighty work so far.
Keeping it real
While the blue half of Manchester is feeling, well, blue, the red half is enjoying a moment of optimism, even if it isn’t shared by new manager Ruben Amorim.
