Finally the power of money came into light as the cash rich Manchester city swept aside the Reds with a convincing 3-0 victory at the city of Manchester stadium. iSporter Jigar Mehta reports.
The conditions at Eastlands were perfectly set for a cracker of a match between the 2 contenders for the top four spot & especially after a humongous amount of spending & a lucky escape in the last game against Tottenham Hotspur, a point to prove for the City players and the Liverpool players too after their dismal performance last season.
Liverpool were given a huge boost going into the match as Fernando Torres was declared fit to start but the biggest blow for them was the absence of Javier Mascherano who did not travel amid heightened speculation of a big-money move to Barcelona with the manager considering that he might not be in the right frame of mind!
For Manchester City the £24million new-boy James Milner was handed his City debut in place of Shaun Wright-Phillips.
Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour were amongst the high profile spectators present at the Stadia.
City started the match brightly as they gained pace in the first 10 minutes of the game with the new-boy James Milner looking as lively as he was last Sunday playing for Aston Villa.
City came close to scoring for the first time in the 9th minute when a belter of a strike by Adam Johnson who cut inside from the right wing narrowly flashed just wide of goal.
This was just the trailer of what was to come next as City were rewarded with their efforts in the 13th minute as the wonder boy Johnson continued his last years splendid form & slid in a smart pass to Milner; with Gerrard guilty of ball watching, Milner pulled it back to Barry inside the box who slotted the ball into the net from 10 yards with a cool side footed finish.
City enjoyed a lion's share of possession throughout the first half and looked the better of the 2 teams. With Adam Johnson terrorising the Reds defence it was one-way traffic throughout the first half.
Amongst the Reds Gerrard was the liveliest, Torres was not at all sharp and looked totally out of sorts.
The 2nd half saw Liverpool gain some momentum at the start but in the 51st minute City scored their second goal against the run of play as Milner created the opportunity for a corner and then his corner was directed goalwards by Micah Richards and the merest of touches from Tevez was enough to take the ball past Reina.
The Reds looked to come back into the game in the 57th minute but were unluckily denied by the post and some brilliant goalkeeping by the last match hero Joe Hart after Gerrard's shot from outside the box came back off the upright, David Ngog and then Torres were denied by superb saves from Joe Hart.
A rampant City continued its attack and was rewarded with a third goal when Tevez sent Reina the wrong way from the penalty spot putting it in the bottom corner after Adam Johnson was brought down inside the box by a rash challenge from Martin Skrtel who was lucky not to receive a second booking for his offence.
At this point of the time the match was all but over and the talking point was, can the Red's salvage some pride? The highly out of sorts Torres showed some flash of brilliance when his solo effort on the goal went just wide of the post in the 73rd minute of the game.
Liverpool tried playing their last cards as Babel was brought on for Torres who immediately created an impact as he cut in from the left and unleashed a powerful shot to the near post only to be denied by the ''Wall of City'', Joe Hart. This was the last real chance that they had created. City's defence was absolutely sharp and strong.
In the end 3-0 scoreline was probably a fair reflection of the game as it was a convincing win for City who recorded their biggest victory over Liverpool in 73 years.
Roberto Mancini would be happy with the fact that his expensive signings are repaying him well and possibly he has got his team selection right this time around!
Roy Hodgson will have to think again tactics wise, as David Ngog and Fernando Torres does not look like the bestest of combination upfront and with constant pressure of a top four finish and champions league qualification in perspective he has a huge mountain to climb, his biggest challenge would be keeping the likes of Javier Mascherano at the club who was sorely missed this time around!
Man of the Match: Adam Johnson- This 23 yr old English talent who has a great ability to change is pace & direction at any point in time had a mind blowing game terrorising Daniel Agger and Milan Jovanovic from the right wing and was instrumental in obtaining a penalty for his team, he just edged past James Milner who had a sparkling debut by creating two goals!
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