Not a great performance, but a fantastic result, as Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-1 by simply maximizing the opportunities they reached, as Stevan Jovetic had his best Premier League match with a brace and Sergio Aguero scored seconds after coming on as a substitute.
Liverpool didn’t get back in the match. They simply got a goal back from Pablo Zabaleta with an own goal, although it was more of a header by Rickie Lambert that made it possible. A minute later, with Manchester City completely stunned, Lambert had a chance, completely open in the box, to make it a real drama in the final five minutes. Instead, he tried to be a good teammate and delivered a bad pass to Daniel Sturridge and killed the momentum.
Liverpool finished the match with ten men as Glen Johnson was injured after all the substitutions were used. Funnily enough, he asked for someone to come on for him but Rodgers only gave him a shrug and something that resembled a scold. Liverpool played well for 40 minutes against a disappointing Manchester City team, but Rodgers didn’t learn from his tactical mistakes on the first weekend.
So while Liverpool played well early on despite not having two forwards on, Manchester City took the lead right before half time after a terrible mistake by Dejan Lovren, clearing a ball poorly which allowed Jovetic to sneak from behind and poach the ball away from Alberto Moreno, maybe Liverpool’s best performer in a very disappointing day.
Jovetic scored the second goal through a much better move, as his began the play with some slick passing that opened up the left side of Liverpool’s defense. Samir Nasri, starting for the first time this season, delivered a great pass to the never-slowing-down Jovetic to score his second goal.
Sergio Aguero scored seconds after coming on for Edin Dzeko, getting a pass from another substitute, Jesus Navas. Lovren, having a terrible performance, allowed Aguero too much space on the through ball to make it a humiliating 3-0. Rodgers remembered two strikers are better then one way too late, showing that right now, Manchester City are a bit too big of a challenge for Liverpool.