Liverpool were the better side for an hour, and Gravenberch’s red card let City score three in 13 minutes

For an hour at Anfield on Sunday, Liverpool were the better side. Then Ryan Gravenberch picked up a second yellow card in the 62nd minute, and Manchester City scored three times in the next 16 minutes to win 3-0. Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku and Rayan Cherki got the goals. City have now won all six of their Premier League games and lead the table by three points.

It was City’s first match since an independent commission found them guilty of breaking the league’s financial rules, a verdict the club is appealing. Their players were booed during the warm-up and again before kick-off.

Liverpool had the chances first

Andoni Iraola was without Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai, who joined the other two on the injury list with a hamstring problem. Lewis Koumas led the line in his first Premier League start, and Liverpool still made most of the running. Gianluigi Donnarumma kept out efforts from Koumas and Gravenberch, and City did not manage a shot until the 35th minute. The one clear chance they did make fell to Haaland, and he rolled it wide with only Alisson to beat.

Gravenberch’s first booking had come for a foul Iraola thought was nothing. The second, for catching Doku’s heels as the winger broke on the counter, ended his afternoon, and the game turned on it.

Sixteen minutes

Haaland scored three minutes later. Doku, who had come on in the 56th minute, ran at the Liverpool defence, the ball broke into the middle and Haaland hit it hard into the left side of the net. Doku curled in the second over Alisson from the left-hand side in the 68th minute, and Cherki finished from close range after Joško Gvardiol’s flick in the 78th.

Iraola did not hide his view of the referee, Chris Kavanagh. “I think the first foul of Ryan is never a yellow card, never,” he said. “We played two different games: one until the red card and one from the red card until the end.”

Enzo Maresca, for his part, expects more of what City got at Anfield. “We need to learn how to deal with the noise because the noise will be with us at all of our away games,” he said.

Where it leaves them

City have 18 points from six games, three clear of Arsenal. Liverpool, unbeaten until Sunday with two wins and three draws, are nine points behind them already, and Gravenberch’s red means he misses their next league game at Brentford.

The worrying part for Iraola is how quickly it went once his side were down to ten. City had barely threatened before the red card. Liverpool held their own for an hour against the best team in the league so far, and still lost by three, and with Isak and Gakpo both out, the squad looks thin for the run of games ahead.

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