English Premiership: Liverpool 2 Manchester City 1For Manchester City, the league gloom deepens. The last time Kevin Keegan's side won a Premiership match they had aspirations of reaching the Champions League. Beaten narrowly here some 102 days later, a return to Division One looms depressingly larger.
Liverpool, previously without a Premiership win themselves for a month, will be relieved to have leapfrogged Charlton and edged ahead of Newcastle into the coveted fourth place on goals scored. Yet theirs was an equally nervous display, memorable for little other than Michael Owen's return to scoring form.
But the greater concerns will be with Keegan today. For all that City might have secured parity late on, Antoine Sibierski planting a free header wide, it is now 14 league games without a win. The visiting fans hollered: "Champions League, you're having a laugh" as Liverpool laboured in victory. "Premiership, you're having a laugh," came the Kop's reply as City slumped again.
Too often Gerard Houllier's side roar into an early ascendancy these days only to stall when they might steamroller their opponents. This contest should have been settled in the opening 20 minutes; instead it spluttered into the mediocre and remained on edge.
When Liverpool were at their most incisive in the opening exchanges, with Steven Gerrard a cavalier presence in midfield, Owen revelled. How the England striker must crave playing against City whenever he is enduring one of his scoring droughts. Last year he tore them to shreds at Maine Road, exploding out of a run that had yielded only one goal in 10 appearances for club and country with a stunning hat-trick.
It took him 172 seconds here to exorcise almost four months of prolonged frustration. After a season wrecked by shin, ankle and thigh injuries, his bite had appeared blunted in recent weeks.
City duly sharpened him up again, the referee Mike Riley ignoring Daniel van Buyten's foul on Bruno Cheyrou to allow Dietmar Hamann to send Owen wriggling away from the hapless Richard Dunne into space. The 24-year-old duly bamboozled his marker, pounded into the area and lifted his shot over David James for his first goal since October 25th.
Thereafter Liverpool briefly poured through City's porous rearguard at will, only to choke in sight of goal. Apart from Gerrard's battered low shot after Harry Kewell charged down Sylvain Distin's effort, James went untroubled if not unconcerned.
The crowd and home side grew frustrated. Not that City appeared to have the means to punish the locals' nerves. Shaun Wright-Phillips alone carried a threat, marauding forward with pace to trouble Sami Hyypia and Stephane Henchoz to offer some consolation for much of the humdrum around him. That mishmash included the former Anfield favourites Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman, released from his anchor on the bench only to end up marooned on the periphery of this game.
If Keegan's half-time instruction had been aimed at coaxing the former England midfielder into action, it reaped immediate results. McManaman's sprint at a retreating back line ripped Liverpool open, with the deft pass wide to Wright-Phillips ideal for the wing back to crunch his shot
beyond Jerzy Dudek and into the corner.
Yet this would not be City without a pantomime; they conceded within a minute. Anthony Le Tallec's pass might have been cleared but instead ran for Owen who crumpled to the turf under James's challenge only for Gerrard to slam home from close range. That lead should have been doubled by either Le Tallec or Owen, only for both to be thwarted calmly by McManaman on his own goal-line. Owen lifted over a gaping net moments later to send the ball high and wide.
LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Finnan, Henchoz, Hyypia, Carragher, Le Tallec (Murphy 69), Gerrard, Hamann, Cheyrou (Biscan 85), Kewell (Heskey 59), Owen. Subs Not Used: Kirkland, Sinama Pongolle. Goals: Owen 3, Gerrard 51.
MAN CITY: James, Dunne, Van Buyten, Distin, Wright-Phillips, Reyna (Barton 68), Bosvelt, McManaman, Tarnat, Fowler, Macken (Sibierski 77). Subs Not Used: Jihai, Arason, Elliott. Goals: Wright-Phillips 50.
Referee: M Riley (W Yorkshire).
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