Liverpool prove Manchester City are human to end unbeaten run as Jürgen Klopp's tactics pay off in rollercoaster

Liverpool 4 Manchester City 3: The home side pressured and pressed City into mistake after mistake to blast aside Pep Guardiola's team - before so nearly throwing it all away

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“Still human”, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had said of Manchester City on Thursday, before he and his risk-taking Liverpool team went and proved it on Sunday – and then almost re-asserted it about themselves. The league leaders at least won’t enjoy the immortality of an unbeaten season, as their run stops at 30 games. It wasn’t just City’s sense of invincibility that will have gone, though, but also some of their aura as Liverpool got at them in a way no-one else has this season.

They mostly made Pep Guardiola’s side look like the team that shipped four goals across the park at Everton a year ago, rather than the one that looks like it could win four trophies this year. That’s how ruthless and relentless Liverpool were, reflected in every one of their emphatic goals for this 4-3 win. Rarely has Ederson looked so exposed and vulnerable, so brutally beaten. It was proof that proper proactivity is the way to get at them.

The gap really should have been bigger, except Jurgen Klopp’s side too readily displayed some of their own vulnerabilities, and City some resilience.

That it went so close was still somewhat fitting mind, given the risks inherent to the German’s approach and how he was willing to both take the game to City and take strong decisions. Simon Mignolet was dropped, maybe to finally be discarded, for Loris Karius to come in. Liverpool’s actions ensured that was barely worthy of words by the end, even though he may have made an error.

From the start, Klopp looked to win the game through typically all-in tactics, to go with an all-in personnel decision. Liverpool were offering the kind of play the German would idealise, especially against a possession side, by pinning City right back with rigorously targeted pressing. It wasn’t just the pace of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane that was disrupting the leaders playing out from the back, but also the threat of it. It said a lot when the normally-so-assured Ederson opted to hit the ball long for kick-outs, rather than risk spreading out to very withdrawn full-backs who looked susceptible to being pounced upon.

That was a regular occurrence throughout the evening.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain celebrates after putting Liverpool in front (Getty)

As if to only emphasise how Klopp’s side were imposing themselves on City, the first goal came from something we have seen a lot through the German’s managerial career, but not enough from Liverpool in the last three years: a burst from midfield. It is something we haven’t seen enough of from Oxlade-Chamberlain in that time either, but that is perhaps just more proof of Klopp’s effect. He surged through the middle and powered a drive past Ederson.

City did eventually regain midfield control, allowing Leroy Sane to eventually restore parity. The winger took the ball with his chest beautifully, and took his goal brutally, even if there were questions to be asked of Karius.

Really, though, it was the only period in the game – and an all-too-brief one at that – that Liverpool players were even putting a foot wrong.

Leroy Sane got City back on level terms but it was all too brief (Getty)

They were instead forcing City to do that. It was one of those afternoons when everything went perfectly for the players from one side, right down to the purity of the finishes for their goals, and one of those were almost everything went wrong for all of those from the other.

It was not just Ederson that suddenly look vulnerable.

Fernandinho was getting beaten in challenges, Sane misplacing passes and De Bruyne – of all people – looking so lightweight. This was the thing. Liverpool made City look like Ciy 2015/16 rather than 2017/18.

That was most visible with the prematurely withdrawn Sterling. Once again, he seemed to let a crowd still angry at his departure get into his head, as he played poor pass after poor pass and then responded with one overly robust and clearly frustrated bad foul.

Sadio Mane celebrates after scoring Liverpool's third goal (Getty)

Stones was meanwhile the opposite, as if incapable of such force. Like his team with the game, he badly misjudged a move after half-time, for the goal that sparked the spree.

Roberto Firmino easily brushed him off the ball in the way that Robbie Fowler did to Gary Neville in October 1995, and then finished with similar flair, chipping Ederson for the ball to go in off the post.

There was a similarly pure conviction about Liverpool’s next two goals, as they again ruthlessly punished City errors. Sane thundered the ball into the top corner after a despairing Otamendi slip, Salah scored from distance from a desperate Ederson clearance.

Mohamed Salah made it 4-1 before City responded through Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gundogan (Getty)

The fact both goals went in in the scarcely believable way they did best summed up the way Liverpool were playing – at least in attack.

It wouldn’t be Liverpool or a Klopp side if they didn’t betray some vulnerability and defensive porousness.

Bernardo Silva pulled one back on 84 minutes before Ilkay Gundogan brought City – and everyone’s emotions – right to the brink on the 90. There was one more scare as a Sergio Aguero header flashed wide before being flagged offside, as everyone in the ground suddenly sagged.

A display of human emotion, to go with an all-too-human display.