Manchester City inflicted a first defeat of the season on Liverpool and Andoni Iraola, with Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Rayan Cherki all on the scoresheet. Liverpool played the second half with 10 men after Ryan Gravenberch was sent off for a second yellow card, and City extended their perfect start to the campaign.
Below are the player ratings. The score shown for each player is the average of reader submissions.
Liverpool
Alisson: Could do nothing to keep out Erling Haaland’s strike, then was beaten by a beauty from Jeremy Doku and some solid footwork from Rayan Cherki. 5
Ronald Araujo: Picked up a cheap yellow card early on and will be annoyed that the first two Manchester City goals came from his side. 5
Virgil van Dijk: Often pushed out of position to help Liverpool deal with being outnumbered in midfield. Perhaps could have closed down Haaland more quickly. 6
Jeremy Jacquet: Wasn’t a bad display from a young talent who is very impressive, but this must have been a real eye-opener against a quality City attack. 6
Milos Kerkez: Battled well with Iliman Ndiaye and pushed up regularly but lacked quality in the final third. 5
Alexis Mac Allister: Grew into the game and put in a good shift but struggled once Liverpool went down to 10 men. 5
Ryan Gravenberch: Came in for the injured Dominik Szoboszlai and was Liverpool’s best player until he was sent off for a second yellow card. Naive on his part. 6
Victor Munoz: Played with real fearlessness and was an absolute nuisance for Manchester City, causing Nico O’Reilly all sorts of problems. 7
Florian Wirtz: Simply has to do better, particularly in games of this magnitude. Was largely ineffective and made some poor decisions. 4
Bradley Barcola: Sharp on the ball and did his defensive duties, but, like Wirtz, must do more in the final third. 5
Lewis Koumas: Making his first Premier League start, the 21-year-old got stuck in from the outset in an energetic display that was loved by the Anfield crowd. 7
Substitutes not used: Mamardashvili, Endo, Tsimikas, McConnell.
Manchester City
Gianluigi Donnarumma: Had a shaky start but made a string of good saves early in the second half to deny Koumas and Gravenberch and keep the game level. 7
Matheus Nunes: An impressive display, making a great tackle in the box to deny Barcola in the first half. 7
Ruben Dias: Did well to weather the early storm and keep Liverpool out. 7
Marc Guehi: Like Dias, a strong performance at centre-half. He can take satisfaction from the way he and his partner defended, especially when Liverpool attacked The Kop end. 7
Nico O’Reilly: Solid going forward but had his work cut out against Munoz and was inevitably booked when he fouled the Spaniard in the second half. 6
Elliot Anderson: Always showed for the ball and was constantly involved, but was lucky not to be booked for pulling back Gravenberch. Got the assist for Doku. 7
Enzo Fernandez: Forced Alisson into a good stop in the first half but didn’t really grow into the game until Gravenberch was sent off. 6
Iliman Ndiaye: Dangerous on the ball and had a few threatening moments before he was replaced by Doku. 6
Rayan Cherki: Capped off a day to remember for Manchester City with a lovely goal. 8
Antoine Semenyo: Threatening all afternoon and part of an attack that was simply too good for Liverpool once City had the numerical advantage. 7
Erling Haaland: Had a quiet first half and missed a huge chance early in the second half, but finished emphatically to give City the lead. 8
Jeremy Doku (on for Ndiaye on 56 minutes): Came on and scored an absolute belter. 8
Substitutes not used: Rulli, Kovacic, Reis, Khusanov, Lewis.