I sat down to watch this match on the DVR when I got home from work. If you would have told me the score was going to be 3-0, I'd have said that City must have had the goals. I would have been dead wrong.
What in the world is going on at City? I'm sorry, but when you spend as much as City did last summer, trying to duke it out for fourth in the Premier League isn't gonna cut it. I suspect Mr. Mancini is in deep trouble.
Things were horrible from the start for City. From the get go, Liverpool was the far more aggressive side and they took it to City, and took it to them good. Much has been made about Torres not scoring yet for Chelsea, and Andy Carroll had yet to open his account for Liverpool as well. To be fair to Andy though, he's been injured and is just getting back to form. He showed it in this match.
Lets not forget about Suarez though. The villain of the last world cup has already made a splash at Anfield, and in the 7th minute of today's match sent a screamer in that Joe Hart just managed to get a hand to and deflect. It was just the beginning of a long day for Hart. In the 13th minute, Andy Carroll got off a monster shot from outside the 18 and slammed it past Hart for his first Liverpool goal. It really was an awesome strike.
Things got worse for City. Just a minute or two later Carlos Tevez left the match with a hamstring injury. Mario Balotelli checked in for him, but had no effect. City just looked like they just didn't care, and as was said in the commentary, it was like they didn't even want to be there. Perhaps they were too focused on the FA Cup Semi final with United this weekend. At any rate, they only had one decent spell for the entire match, about 5 minutes leading up to the 31st, where Adam Johnson guided them to 75% of the possession. However, despite all the possession, they didn't even really get it on net. They paid for that in 34th minute, when Liverpool built up a massive attack around the City penalty area that Dirk Kuyt nicely finished off with a goal, making it 2-0 to Liverpool. Just over a minute later, Carroll got a second goal, heading one in with true center forward style. 3-0, Liverpool, and that was all she wrote.
The second half wasn't really much, Liverpool stayed on the front foot, and despite Silva entering the match for City, they never threatened. 3-0 Liverpool was the final.
Liverpool looks to be in a strong position to perhaps capture a Europa League spot for next year, and with a couple more signings, they could be back in the top four mix again sooner rather than later. Carroll and Suarez could be a real future for this club.
City on the other hand....yikes. Rumors are floating that Mancini might be sacked if he doesn't beat United this weekend. Honestly, I don't think City has a chance, unless they play totally different than they did today. Tevez is out at least 2-3 weeks, and the club looks to just be falling apart. I'm ok with that, really. You can have an expectation to win when you spend like that, but you don't have a right to win. You still need to play the matches, and City has looked worse and worse. I guess we'll see what happens.
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