Manchester City comfortably kept their unbeaten run at home with a 3-0 beating of Liverpool at the Etihad stadium and recovered well from their shock defeat at Sunderland which was just around 48 hours ago.
Although, as always, there were questionable decisions by referee Andre Marriner, there is no doubt over who outplayed whom with Liverpool all huff and puff but no quality as BBC's Tom Rostance summarized the performance accordingly.
Each time when it looked like they were gaining in momentum, the Reds slipped up and lost it again. First Pepe Reina, of all people, let Sergio Aguero's shot drop under him for the opening goal, the Spaniard not happy understandably.
Then, when Liverpool had gained advantage in possession, territory and pressure again, Yaya Toure headed in a City corner, past Reina and the two defenders Jose Enrique and Charlie Adam, easily beating Glen Johnson by a couple of inches.
Gareth Barry's 450th Premier League appearance was nothing to shout about, apart from a couple of harsh decision which went against him. The England midfielder saw his first booking for bringing down Jay Spearing who looked like he made the most of the brush past just before half time.
Then in the second half, after Kenny Dalglish had rang in the changes bringing on Steven Gerrard and Craig Bellamy for below par Adam and Dirk Kuyt, Liverpool started to speed and heat up the match more.
A minute of madness followed just over halfway through the second half: Barry was sent off, booked the second time for a push on Daniel Agger. Harsh again, as it looked neither here nor there between the two, although he was warned off shortly before that after a tackle on Gerrard.
But instead of taking advantage of the referee's decision and the extra man, Liverpool's Enrique gave away the resulting free kick very cheaply for City to break out onto a counter attack and Yaya Toure to win a penalty after being brought down by Martin Skrtel. It looked like a very soft touch, another harsh decision by Marriner, but James Milner netted it cooly to the right, sending Reina the wrong way, to seal the match, result and three points, 3-0 to City.
Liverpool tried and tried, but never got very far, no matter how much possession and time they had on the ball. Andy Carrol was useless and nowhere to be seen apart from a couple of misses as always. Stewart Downing and Enrique produced the only sparks of hope with some fine breaks and crosses, as Bellamy did later, too.
But, whether it was because Luis Suarez was missing, after starting his eight-match ban for racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, or because of the bad weather (it was absolutely pouring it down turning the football pitch into a water glide), Liverpool never looked like they were getting close.
And City did not have to make much of an effort to grab the win, it just looked too easy! Although man of the match Vincent Kompany's outstanding performance at the back needs to be noted. He kept the little Liverpool resistence there was at bay superbly and gave them no chance whatsoever of a comeback. They are now three points clear at the top ahead of local rivals United.
King Kenny hit the spot in response to Liverpool's performance: "If you want to be successful you have to be clinical, and that's what was missing tonight from ourselves. We worked hard and passed it well, but if you're not clinical you won't progress."
Man City: Hart; Richards, Kompany, Kolo Toure, Clichy; Yaya Toure (scored 32:30), Barry (booked 45. s.o. 73), Aguero (scored 9:53; Johnson 72), Silva (Lescott 76), Milner (scored penalty 74:13), Dzeko.
Subs not used: Pantiliman, Zabaleta, Kolarov, Savic, De Jong.
Liverpool: Reina; Johnson (booked 56), Agger, Skrtel, Jose Enrique; Adam (Gerrard 57), Kuyt (Bellamy 57), Henderson, Spearing (Rodriguez 76), Downing, Carroll.
Subs not used: Doni, Carragher, Shelvey, Kelly.
1st & 2nd half stats: Man City-Liverpool
Attempts: 7:7 & 2:6
On target: 6:4 & 1:2
Offsides: 0:0 & 0:0
Corners: 5:2 & 0:4
Free kicks: 4:6 & 3:6
Possession:
BBC: 51%-49% & 50%-50%
Sky Sports: 45%-55% & 26.6%-73.4% (!!!)
Further Sky Sports stats: Man City-Liverpool
Passing Success: 77.3%-86.2%
Tackles/Success: 19/68.4%-17/82.4%
Territorial Advantage: 42.1%-57.9% (!!! again)
Action Areas: Man City 43%-44%-13% Liverpool (!!! last time)
Referee: Andre Marriner (West Midlands)
Man of the match: Vincent Kompany
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