Liverpool 2-0 Man City: How Reds combined best of Arne Slot & Jurgen Klopp to win

When Liverpool streaked away to their only Premier League title in 2019-20, they had 37 points from 12 wins and a draw at this same stage, leading Leicester City by eight points and Manchester City by nine.

The season turned into a procession, ending behind closed doors, and it already looks like it will take something very special from Liverpool’s chasing pack to change that narrative in this campaign.

Liverpool’s nine-point lead is their biggest margin at the top since the final day of that triumphant campaign, when they won the title by 18 points.

This Liverpool performance carried a more direct and frantic air, a tendency to ease themselves into games replaced by a full-on barrage then left City reeling, defensive pair Kyle Walker and Ruben Dias engaged in animated discussion early on as to how they could stem the charge.

They never really found the answer, Dias robbed by Liverpool substitute Darwin Nunez, leaving Luis Diaz to race clear before he was brought down by Ortega. Salah completed the formalities 12 minutes from time.

The numbers certainly suggested Liverpool went for the more direct, pressurised approach, with 14.8% of their passes going long, compared to their season’s average of 9.1% before this game.

This was certainly a slight departure, a cocktail of old Klopp and new Slot.

Liverpool’s successful transition from Klopp to Slot carried a qualification early on. Namely, that it was all well and good, but who of consequence had they played?

The answer has been delivered most emphatically at Anfield in the space of five days as first Champions League holders Real Madrid then reigning Premier League champions Manchester City were over-powered, identical 2-0 scorelines no reflection of Liverpool’s vast superiority.