EPL: Liverpool extend lead with dominant 2-0 victory over Man City

Liverpool took a significant step toward clinching the Premier League title on Sunday, securing a 2-0 victory over Manchester City to extend their lead at the top of the table to 11 points ahead of Arsenal.

Mohamed Salah once again proved instrumental, netting his 30th goal of the season to break the deadlock before assisting Dominik Szoboszlai for the second goal just before halftime.

The defeat adds to a tough week for Manchester City, who were recently eliminated from the Champions League by Real Madrid. Now trailing the leaders by 20 points, the dethroned champions face an uphill battle to salvage their domestic campaign.

Under Pep Guardiola’s reign, the rivalry between City and Liverpool has often seen the Reds narrowly miss out.

However, their time to match Manchester United’s record of 20 English top-flight titles now appears just months away in Arne Slot’s first season in charge.

Arsenal’s shock 1-0 home defeat to West Ham on Saturday had eased the pressure on Liverpool, that had built after dropping points in two of their last three games at Everton and Aston Villa.

A trip to the Etihad has for so long been the stiffest test of all, but Man City’s defensive frailties were easily exposed and they also badly missed the presence of the injured Erling Haaland in attack.

Liverpool, by contrast, had their talisman fit and firing as Salah took his staggering tally this season to 25 goals and 16 assists in 27 Premier League appearances.

The Egyptian fired the visitors in front on 14 minutes thanks to a brilliantly executed set-piece routine.

Alexis Mac Allister’s corner was flicked by Szoboszlai into Salah’s path and his shot deflected off Nathan Ake past the despairing dive of Ederson.

At the other end, City’s own Egyptian international showed his ability to finish, but Omar Marmoush had strayed offside before being played in by Phil Foden.

City winger Jeremy Doku was skipping past Trent Alexander-Arnold at will, yet the Belgian consistently failed to deliver a telling cross or shot.

Salah was not so forgiving as he raced onto a long ball over the top and teed up Szoboszlai to wrong-foot Ederson.

The final outcome could have been much more humiliating for City had Liverpool had been as accurate on the counter-attack after the break.

Curtis Jones had a third goal ruled out by a VAR review for offside after Szoboszlai just failed to time his run through the heart of the Man City defence.

Ederson was forced into a stunning save from Luis Diaz and only a brilliant last-ditch tackle from Abdukodir Khusanov denied Szoboszlai a second.

Marmoush scored a hat-trick in last weekend’s 4-0 win over Newcastle and remained a lively threat as he flashed another effort across the front of Alisson Becker’s goal.

But Man City lacked the end product to make nearly 70 percent possession count.

Despite an eighth league defeat of the season, Guardiola’s men remain in fourth and will be confident of securing their place in the Champions League next season with a top-five finish likely to be enough.

However, after an unprecedented run of four consecutive titles, Man City look like yesterday’s team with Liverpool now champions in waiting.