Liverpool - 2 Manchester City - 1: Rafael Benitez pleaded for patience last week though, by insisting on setting an optimistic tone, the Spaniard is his own worst enemy. Three years ago he defeated Real Madrid in his first home match in charge of Valencia, the prelude to a reign of domestic dominance. This dismissal of Manchester City may not have the same giddy overtones but expectation has been swelled nonetheless.
For 45 spluttering minutes this performance was all too horribly familiar. The home side's pressure was sporadic and their play congested through the centre to leave the Kop snarling in frustration as the manager flapped ineffectively in the technical area. Yet by the final whistle the sense was that times have changed for the better on Merseyside.
Liverpool had overturned a half-time deficit to win a league match for the first time since they trailed 2-0 to Tottenham in May 1999 and the new regime was up and running. "I knew that if we scored in the first 15 minutes of the second half we would win," said Benitez. "It is still early and there are plenty of things we can improve on. It's just better to correct things when we are winning."
Much about Benitez's side smacks of progression. Michael Owen has gone but Milan Baros is finally showing flashes of his talent at club level with Djibril Cisse, the last lavish legacy of the ancien regime, already at ease in the Premiership. Steven Gerrard was his irrepressible self while Dietmar Hamann - his place directly threatened by Xabi Alonso - nullified City through the centre.
The visitors duly capitulated. Hamann's tackle on Claudio Reyna, Gerrard's slide-rule pass to negate Sylvain Distin and Baros's finish secured parity. Hamann then sent Baros into the area, the goalkeeper blocked and Gerrard hit the winner.
City were desperately poor, plodding too deep and unable to free either Shaun Wright-Phillips or Nicolas Anelka. When they scored in first-half stoppage time, through Anelka, they seemed as shocked as their opponents were deflated.
Other than Antoine Sibierski's header high and wide the visitors mustered little and eventually had Richard Dunne dismissed. The former Everton defender first propelled Baros into the stand, then tugged down Cisse with a linesman's intervention prompting red. "It was a joke," said the Irrishman afterwards. "The linesman was just being busy, wanting to get himself noticed. It finished us off but we sat back too much. Sides will always wear us down, so we have to buck up our ideas."
LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Josemi (Diao 61), Hyypia, Carragher, Riise, Finnan (Warnock 77), Hamann, Gerrard, Kewell (Biscan 90), Baros, Cisse. Subs Not Used: Sinama Pongolle, Harrison. Booked: Hamann. Goals: Baros 48, Gerrard 75.
MAN CITY: James, Thatcher, Distin, Dunne, Mills, Sibierski (Barton 82), Bosvelt (Sinclair 82), Reyna, Wright-Phillips, Anelka, Fowler. Subs Not Used: Macken, Jihai, Stuhr-Ellegaard. Sent Off: Dunne (85). Booked: Thatcher, Dunne, Bosvelt. Goals: Anelka 45.
Referee: G Poll (Hertfordshire).
