Who needs Erling Haaland?! Winners and losers as Julian Alvarez and Jack Grealish batter Liverpool's struggling defence to keep Man City's title push going

When you pay a record transfer fee for a player, it’s so they perform in games like this, and Grealish, who has not had the easiest of times at City, certainly lived up to his star billing here.

His goal, City’s fourth, capped a Man-of-the-Match display from the £100 million ($123m) man, who may have spent Saturday morning in the toilet due to illness, but was far too hot for Liverpool to handle thereafter.

Grealish, brilliant throughout, was decisive at both ends in the first half, setting up Julian Alvarez for City’s equaliser just moments after sprinting back crucially to stop Mohamed Salah laying on a goal for Diogo Jota at the other end.

His tussle with Trent Alexander-Arnold was a feature of a niggly first 45 minutes, the pair clashing on numerous occasions, with Alexander-Arnold perhaps fortunate to avoid a yellow card after a couple of fouls on his England pal. 

Grealish, though, won the battle comprehensively, tormenting Liverpool with his touch and dribbling skills. 

Fittingly, it was he who finished the Reds off late on by sliding home Kevin De Bruyne’s pass to make it 4-1. The best performance he’s delivered in a City shirt? It just might be.

The cheers from the City supporters will have felt like a dagger through the heart of Liverpool's Egyptian King, as the fourth official raised his board bearing the No.11.

There were still 20 minutes remaining when Salah was withdrawn, but his side had long since given up on the idea of rescuing something from the game.

Salah, who had given them the lead in the first half, had faded as quickly as the Reds’ top-four hopes, and his frown as he trudged to the sideline, to be replaced by Darwin Nunez, said it all.

It could have been so different. Salah’s finish to open the scoring was clinical, his 23rd of the season and the fourth he has scored against City in four games this season. Typical Salah.

But he also wasted a glorious chance to extend the Reds’ lead, failing to pick out Jota after being sent clear by Harvey Elliott on the break. Grealish intercepted, a few minutes later City were level and Liverpool’s chance, literally and metaphorically, had been and gone.

No Erling Haaland? No problem. Not when your back-up forward is as good as Manchester City's is.

The absence of the Premier League's top scorer was the headline news when the teams dropped an hour before kick-off, but in Alvarez, Pep Guardiola has a more-than-able deputy, one whose skill, movement and finishing prowess would make him an automatic starter for most clubs in the world.

Alvarez got City back into the game, rounding off a flowing move with a close-range finish, and his sharpness and ability to link the play, connecting with the likes of Grealish, De Bruyne and Riyad Mahrez, meant there could be no switching off from Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, Liverpool’s overworked centre-backs.

He created City’s second goal, his beautiful pass allowing Mahrez to set up De Bruyne, and had a hand in the third as well, his shot blocked by Alexander-Arnold before Ilkay Gundogan netted.

Haaland, watching in the executive suites, celebrated accordingly. He’ll return to the City starting line up soon enough, of course, but there’s every chance he’ll be playing alongside his young understudy when he does. Alvarez, quite simply, is too good to sit on the bench for any team.

When you play against a team like City, every mistake, however minor, has the potential to prove fatal. And unfortunately for Robertson, he made a few too many of them on the day.

It was his unsuccessful attempt to press De Bruyne on the halfway line which started the move for Alvarez’s equaliser. He was only a yard or so away from winning the ball, but a yard or so may as well be a mile against this opposition. Mahrez, Grealish and Alvarez punished him accordingly.

And they did so again just after the half-time, Robertson playing Mahrez onside as he ran on to Alvarez’s pass and set up De Bruyne. Less than 60 seconds after the restart, the game was gone.

The Scot, unsurprisingly, was replaced by Kostas Tsimikas late on, and wore the look of a man who knew he has had many, many better days than this in a Liverpool shirt.

There could be no doubt that City deserved their win. They were better than Liverpool in every area, fitter and faster, smarter and sharper from one to 11 and beyond.

But how different this game might have looked had referee Simon Hooper shown a second yellow card to Rodri for a classic 'tactical foul' late in the first half?

The Spaniard had just been booked for pulling back Jota when he committed a carbon-copy offence to stop Cody Gakpo launching a counter-attack. Liverpool’s players surrounded the official, but Hooper opted not to brandish the red card. Rodri escaped, and on the sideline Guardiola puffed out his cheeks in relief.

He’s a bit of a master at getting away with things, is Rodri, although City would argue both Fabinho and Alexander-Arnold benefited from Hooper’s leniency here, especially in the first half. The referee did not, it has to be said, have a good game.

But in fairness, as Jurgen Klopp pointed out in his post-match press conference, there's no guarantee Liverpool would have won the game against 10 men, in any case.

For 45 minutes this was a contest. For the next 45 it was a car crash. Well, as far as Liverpool were concerned, anyway.

What on earth were the Reds thinking, emerging after half-time and conceding within a minute? How can these things, these sloppy, sloppy goals keep on happening, whether against elite opponents or average ones?

Klopp must have been heartbroken watching City toy with his dejected side in the closing stages here. He will have heard the chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ from the home fans, and will certainly have noticed the swathes of empty blue seats in the away end, well before the final whistle.

Whatever he is trying at the moment, it ain’t working. Liverpool are weak, timid and far, far too easy to play against. They lose their focus and their confidence at the drop of a hat, and concede goals that an Under-11s reserve team would be embarrassed by.

They had only four shots here, their lowest total in a Premier League game since 2011, but this was not a story of attacking struggles. It wasn’t even one of defensive frailties or midfield weakness, to be honest.

The truth is, this a team that simply cannot do what it used to, and its problems are so vast that even Klopp, a genius of a manager, may find the task beyond him.