Doku and Cherki inspire 10-man Liverpool's collapse as City go top at Anfield

Manchester City moved to the top of the Premier League with a thumping win at Anfield, goals from Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki condemning a depleted Liverpool side to defeat in one of the most charged atmospheres of the season.

The result arrived against a backdrop of relentless hostility. Liverpool supporters chanted “cheats” and “going down” throughout, a direct response to the independent commission’s recent guilty verdicts on City’s breaches of Premier League financial rules. City fans answered with inflatable bananas — a throwback to the late 1980s craze — and their players answered with a performance that left little room for debate on the pitch, even if the legal questions surrounding the club remain unresolved.

The game turned decisively in the second half when City head coach Enzo Maresca introduced Doku. The Belgian winger immediately unsettled Liverpool’s shape, and Ryan Gravenberch, unable to contain him on a breakaway, collected a second yellow card and was dismissed. Liverpool, already without Alexander-Arnold, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai through injury, had no cutting edge left to threaten a comeback.

Haaland opened the scoring before Doku added a second, capping his own influential cameo. The pick of the goals came from Cherki, whose finish drew admiring glances even from a crowd in no mood to applaud anything in sky blue. At the final whistle, Anfield’s DJ played Fleetwood Mac’s “Little Lies” — a pointed gesture from the home end — but the evening belonged to City.

In the stands, City chief executive Ferran Soriano and director of football Hugo Viana watched impassively, giving little away. On the pitch, their players were rather more expressive. Elliot Anderson, physically and mentally combative throughout, repeatedly challenged Florian Wirtz, Lewis Koumas and Alexis Mac Allister and held his ground whenever tensions flared.

The broader context, of course, looms over everything. City’s 115 alleged charges relating to financial fair play rules remain the subject of an ongoing Premier League process, and the chants from the Kop reflected genuine fury from a fanbase that believes trophies were taken from them unfairly. City maintain their innocence. For now, the points are real — even if their ultimate fate may rest with lawyers rather than referees.