Gary Neville believes Liverpool sent a clear league title-winning message after its dominant 2-0 victory over Manchester City on Sunday, highlighting a moment between Virgil van Dijk and Alisson that perfectly represented the team's championship mindset under Arne Slot.

"There was a long clinch between Alisson and Van Dijk that was quite telling," Neville said while watching the match. "It was a performance that brings some familiarity with what a title-winning, away performance looks like. Liverpool was compact in defense and ruthless in attack. There is still a job to do, but Liverpool is in an excellent position."

Liverpool completely neutralized City, cruising to a win that never looked in doubt. Mohamed Salah opened the scoring early, rifling a left-footed shot into the top right corner after a well-worked assist from Dominik Szoboszlai off a corner. Szoboszlai then doubled the lead before halftime, also finishing from the center of the box with another clinical left-footed strike.

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Manchester City struggled to gain any significant attacking momentum, forcing Pep Guardiola into a frantic set of second-half changes. He substituted Kevin De Bruyne for James McAtee while also bringing on Ilkay Gundogan, Ruben Dias, and Mateo Kovacic in an attempt to turn the tide. The absence of Erling Haaland due to a right knee injury in last weekend's win over Newcastle left City to play traditional winger Phil Foden up front.

Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate firmly anchored Liverpool's backline, who dominated throughout the game. Van Dijk cleared nearly every cross that came his way, while Konate's physicality stifled City's attempts to find space out wide. Van Dijk even delivered a last-ditch highlight tackle to deny Omar Marmoush what would have been a crucial goal to bring City back into the game.

Slot became the first manager in league history to beat Guardiola twice in a single season during his rookie season with the club. Salah continued to prove himself Guardiola's ultimate kryptonite, now having the most goals [9] and assists [6] against Guardiola-managed Premier League teams. Man City fans voiced online frustrations and criticized the team's decision to sell Julian Alvarez. Alvarez now leads Atletico Madrid in goals with nine, tied with Alexander Sorloth.

Even Man City winger Jeremy Doku spoke about Liverpool's pressuring defense after the game saying, "We tried. I had a lot of attacking situations, but after the two goals that they scored, they played very deep. They defended very well and then played on the counter-attack, so it was hard for us to find spaces."

After the loss, City is in fourth place in the table, tied with fifth-place Newcastle at 44 points. Bournemouth and Chelsea sit just four points behind, leaving Guardiola's side at risk of dropping out of a Champions League position for the first time since 2010.

Liverpool now sits 11 points clear at the top of the table with 64 points, putting them firmly in pole position to reclaim the Premier League title. Arsenal remains in second place with 53 points and will face third-place Nottingham Forest on Wednesday, though the result won’t shift either team’s standing at the table.