Roberto Firmino scored his first Liverpool goal and made two
more as Jurgen Klopp's team stopped Manchester City
recapturing the Premier League summit with a brilliant 4-1
away win on Saturday.
City were bidding to return to first place after being usurped
by Leicester City earlier in the day, but they were left in third
after a sloppy and unfocused display at the Etihad Stadium
culminated in their third defeat of the campaign.
Raheem Sterling, playing against Liverpool for the first time
since his acrimonious close-season exit, had been the focus of
the pre-match build-up, but it was Firmino, a £29 million
($44.1 million, 41.4 million euros) capture from Hoffenheim,
who stole the headlines.
The Brazil international created an own goal by Eliaquim
Mangala, teed up Philippe Coutinho and scored himself, all
inside the first 32 minutes, and although Sergio Aguero
marked his return from a seven-game lay-off with a
hamstring injury by replying, Martin Skrtel slammed home
Liverpool's fourth late on.
Klopp's side, beaten 2-1 at home by Crystal Palace in their
previous outing, have now won away at Chelsea and City,
although they rose just one place in the standings to ninth.
Prior to kick-off several Tricolores were held aloft during the
playing of the French national anthem, in tribute to the victims
of last week's Paris attacks, and City's France internationals
Bacary Sagna and Eliaquim Mangala were both shown singing
along on the stadium's big screens.
The pair could have been forgiven for having their minds
elsewhere and that appeared to be the case as a sequence of
glaring errors in City's defence allowed the visitors to take
control of the game.
Liverpool went ahead in the seventh minute after Coutinho
dispossessed Sagna and found Firmino, whose low cross was
inadvertently scuffed in at the near post by the back-pedalling
Mangala.
City manager Manuel Pellegrini had changed both his centre-
backs, Mangala and Martin Demichelis starting in place of
Nicolas Otamendi and injured skipper Vincent Kompany, and it
was from a mix-up between the two newcomers that Liverpool
added a second goal in the 23rd minute.
As both players converged on a loose ball, Demichelis
contrived to head it past Mangala and Firmino squared for
Coutinho to steer a shot between the legs of Joe Hart.
Liverpool were playing with an aggressivity and purpose that
has characterised their approach since Klopp's arrival and they
swelled their lead yet further after a sweeping counter-attack.
Coutinho initially saw a shot parried by Hart, but an audacious
back-heel by Emre Can gave the Brazilian a second bite at
the cherry and he rolled square for Firmino to tap home.
Firmino twice went close to compounding City's misery, first
seeing an effort blocked by Hart and then hooking inches wide
from Coutinho's flick.
Each misplaced pass from a player in sky blue drew a flurry of
invective from the home fans, but shortly before half-time
Aguero gave them hope.
The Argentine picked up the ball midway inside the Liverpool
half, resisted the attentions of Adam Lallana and arced a
right-foot shot around Simon Mignolet from 25 yards.
Pellegrini took reparative action at half-time, sending on
Fabian Delph and Fernandinho for Yaya Toure and Jesus
Navas in a bid to go toe-to-toe with Liverpool's three-man
midfield.
His side remained troublingly porous at the back, however,
and Hart was required to save with his right leg on the hour
after Can's pass, dummied by Lallana, gave Firmino yet
another sight of goal.
Hart also had to save from Dejan Lovren, before a calamitous
back-pass from old boy James Milner almost let City back
into the game, only for Mignolet to deny Aguero from
Sterling's lay-off.
After Hart had thwarted substitute Christian Benteke, Skrtel
slammed home from a corner to rubber-stamp Liverpool's first
league win at the Etihad since October 2008 and condemn
City to a second 4-1 reverse of the campaign after
September's drubbing at Tottenham Hotspur.
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