Liverpool’s resurgence has begun as they earned a narrow 1-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday.

     This matchup at Anfield showcased that you can not afford to make any mistakes in games such as these. This evenly contested match was essentially decided by two moments: the VAR decision and the Joao Cancelo mistake.

     Despite the match taking place at Anfield - where Liverpool tends to dominate - they were more than happy to sit back and try to handle any pressure from City’s attack. Liverpool’s attempt at stopping a City team who had scored 33 goals in 9 games was a big task, but they did a great job in the first half. Not only were they able to maintain City from scoring, they were hindering their ability to create chances.

     Here comes the first pivotal moment in the game. City fans rejoiced as a 50/50 challenge between Haaland and Alisson landed at Foden’s feet for a 1–0 lead for the visitors. Well, that’s what we thought. Another weekend of VAR drama continued as Foden’s goal was called back for a shirt pull in the build-up. The game was even again, and Pep was not happy. He protested the call with full force and even encouraged the home fans to keep whistling at him.

     When asked after the game, Pep was quoted saying, “This is Anfield. The referee spoke with my assistant coaches and said: ‘I’m not going to make fouls and I will be clear.’ All game it was play on and play on and play on. Except the goal [for Foden]”. Pep seemed to suggest the call was unfair, but there were still 47 minutes plus stoppage time to find a winner.

     City’s play was slow and sluggish from the start, and they could never gain the momentum needed to make an impact. With 14 minutes left on the clock, the second pivotal moment took place.

     A quick punt from Alisson was met by Joao Cancelo, whose mistake left Mohamed Salah one-on-one with Ederson. With a slotted shot past the keeper, Liverpool’s day could not get any better as they took the lead. With more chippy play after, Liverpool was able to see out a victory over their new-born rivals City.

     Jurgen Klopp became the story of the dying minutes as his constant complaining cost him the final moments as he saw a straight red card for his strong words toward the referee. While he watched the last minutes from the locker room, Klopp managed to create something out of a bad situation and secure a victory at Anfield.

     Liverpool had a depleted squad, missing two regular defenders in this match. On a side with a struggling Joe Gomez and an aging James Milner, City should have seized this opportunity to attack and dominate this flank. The mistake that Pep made was the combination of both Phil Foden and Nathan Ake.

     Ake’s forward ability is not top-tier, and Foden’s play becomes a bit one-dimensional when not supported. If Bernardo dropped to the midfield and Grealish played instead of Gundogan, a more bolstering attack could have created more chances. Along with this, Cancelo playing left-back could have done well as his attack combination with Bernardo and Grealish on the left could have caused so many problems for a depleted Liverpool defense. As seen in the United match, Foden’s combination play with De Bruyne on the right side was also efficient. On top of that, the fluidity of the attack could have created more chances for Erling Haaland - a player struggling to get touches throughout the match.

     With this defeat, City now sit 4 points behind first-place Arsenal. Their next fixture is taking place on October 22nd at home versus Brighton.