Manchester City 3 Liverpool 0:MANCHESTER CITY did far more than take their first Premier League win of this campaign. They claimed the win by the sort of margin associated with sides who are viewed as credible candidates for the major prizes.
Luck also went against Liverpool here on occasion, but the home crowd had its glimpse of the spectacle that is now demanded here.
In patches at least, the flow and danger were obvious. Time, too, is in the side that is clearly taking shape.
Before a watching Sheikh Mansour, City’s benefactor even more than its owner, there was an opulent opening goal as early as the 13th minute.
Visitors known for their rigour were still left powerless by the fluency of a move that also showed surprising understanding in a line-up that remains under development.
Adam Johnson, in his first start of the campaign, slid a pass between Milan Jovanovic and Daniel Agger, with James Milner, on his debut, slipped into space on the right before pulling the cross back for Gareth Barry to side-foot the ball into the net.
The breakthrough appeared to augur well, but City showed little further interest in laying on a spectacle before the interval.
That was not so very great a surprise.
Roberto Mancini has tried to look methodical and even downbeat in his management, as if he could personally offset the bemusement and disbelief that swirls around a club of unequalled means.
The prosaic streak was its broadest when he opened the Premier League campaign with a cautious approach at White Hart Lane.
Even if he was wilfully refusing to play to the gallery, a goalless draw must have been entirely satisfactory against Tottenham Hotspur, who beat City to the spot in the Champions League qualifiers.
A first home fixture of the campaign, against Liverpool, seemed to demand that Mancini reveal more of his intentions.
Circumspection could not be the order of the day when Milner, signed from Aston Villa in a deal valued at €32 million, was making his debut on the left wing.
Nonsensical as it sounds after all the outlay, City, however, can be as rueful as any other club when a player is missing. Mario Balotelli, a €30 million acquisition from Internazionale, might have been of use, but a striker who, on his debut scored the only goal of the away match with Timisoara in the Europa League, was ruled out with a knee problem.
Momentum and credibility for City can only have their origin in victories and those results, above all, must come in a steady flow at this stadium, yet they hardly reduced the visitors to panic in the first half.
Liverpool were a good test of City’s means.
They were bound to be obstinate under the management of that formidable organiser Roy Hodgson, even if the manager did not have Javier Mascherano in his squad as conjecture swelled of an imminent move to Barcelona.
The visitors, with Fernando Torres making his first start for the club since Spain’s World Cup triumph, was paired with the improving David Ngog.
Hodgson’s conundrum lay in the inability of his team to advance with purpose. Shortly before half-time, Torres did set up Steven Gerrard for a drive that flew wide.
The incident did not amount to much, but it should have sufficed to remind City that victory was not assured.
Mancini is still to establish a style that will make visitors quake. He will have to do so since clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester United, who truly see themselves as champions in waiting, can inflict terror on visitors.
City did well enough initially but there was nothing then to make Liverpool despair completely.
The real sense that the match was slipping out of their reach did not come until City extended their lead in the 53rd minute.
A Micah Richards header was forced in by Carlos Tevez. Hodgson’s team did not lack the spirit to react and attempts from Ngog and Torres in succession came back off the post.
But it did not look feasible that City, for all their previous history of eccentricity, would fail here.
Their third goal duly arrived. Martin Skrtel’s challenge brought down Adam Johnson in the 67th minute and Tevez converted the penalty in his usual forthright manner.
The winger Johnson had shown in the incident the elusiveness that makes him a crucial figure, even if he did come at the cost of a mere €8.6 million from Middlesbrough.
Liverpool, for their part, were unlucky as well as outmatched and the substitute Ryan Babel was, for instance, no sooner on the pitch for Torres, than his shot from the right cannoned off the post.
All the same, City had an effectiveness here that had nothing at all to do with luck.
GuardianService
MAN CITY: Hart, Richards, Toure, Kompany, Lescott, De Jong, Toure Yaya (Zabaleta 84), Barry, Milner, Adam Johnson, Tevez (Jo 84). Subs not used: Given, Wright-Phillips, Adebayor, Silva, Vieira. Booked: Richards.
LIVERPOOL: Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Carragher, Agger, Jovanovic (Pacheco 85), Gerrard, Lucas, Kuyt, Torres (Babel 78), Ngog. Subs not used: Jones, Aurelio, Kyrgiakos, Maxi, Poulsen. Booked: Skrtel.
Referee: Phil Dowd (Staffordshire).
