Manchester City handed Liverpool their first Premier League defeat of the season, sweeping past the Reds with a 3-0 victory at Anfield in matchday six of the campaign.
Liverpool had entered the fixture boasting an unbeaten record of two wins and three draws, but they failed to hold off the league leaders, particularly after being reduced to ten men in the second phase, sealing a heavy defeat against their rivals.
The deadlock remained unbroken until the 62nd minute when Ryan Gravenberch was shown a second yellow card and sent off. Manchester City swiftly capitalized on their numerical advantage, with Erling Haaland breaking the deadlock in the 65th minute.
The visitors needed just three minutes to double their lead through substitute Jérémy Doku, before Rayan Cherki rounded off the scoring in the 78th minute. City effectively settled the contest with a three-goal blitz in just 13 minutes, having been kept at bay by Liverpool for the opening hour.
The result deepened Liverpool’s ongoing struggles against City, marking their fourth consecutive defeat across all competitions. The run began with a 3-0 win for City at the Etihad, a 2-1 victory at Anfield, a 4-0 thrashing in the FA Cup quarter-finals, and now a 3-0 triumph, bringing City’s aggregate tally to 12 goals scored against just one conceded in response.
Manchester City moved onto 18 points from six straight wins, claiming sole possession of the Premier League summit with a three-point lead over Arsenal. Meanwhile, Liverpool stalled on nine points, dropping provisionally to ninth place after suffering their first league defeat under Andoni Iraola.
Enzo Maresca wrote his name into Premier League history by becoming only the fourth manager to win his opening six games in charge of a club in the competition, joining Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), and Ole Gunnar Solskjær (Manchester United).
The victory highlights City’s extraordinary start to the season; no team has won their first six league matches consecutively since the 2020-2021 campaign except for Manchester City, who have achieved the feat twice—first in 2023-2024 under Guardiola, and now under Maresca.
Neither side has much time to recover, as Liverpool travel to face Austrian side LASK in the UEFA Champions League on Wednesday before visiting Brentford away on Saturday. In contrast, Manchester City host Paris Saint-Germain in Europe on Wednesday prior to welcoming Ipswich Town to the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
