'Nobody realised just how' - media praise 'ferocious' Liverpool as Man City 'shoved into the abyss'

There are wins, and there are wins. And Liverpool certainly enjoyed one of the latter as they opened up a nine-point lead at the Premier League summit with a 2-0 dismissal of champions Manchester City at home on Sunday afternoon.

Cody Gakpo struck early on and Mohamed Salah converted a penalty in the second half as the Reds dominated their opponents to secure an 18th win in 20 games under new head coach Arne Slot this season.

It made for a memorable occasion at Anfield. And here's how the national media viewed a hugely significant result for Slot's side.

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Writing in The Times, Paul Joyce - formerly of this parish - pointed to the tribute paid to Liverpool's new head coach from the Anfield crowd.

"It has been quite the week for head coach Arne Slot, with Real Madrid vanquished in the Champions League in midweek and now City scorched by a team who have come to resemble a ferocious winning machine," he says.

"It was right that Slot’s name reverberated around Anfield after the final whistle. Liverpool should celebrate what they have in the Dutchman whose eye for detail has nursed 18 wins and a draw from his 20 matches and overseen a remarkable level of consistency.

"The gap, at times, resembled a gulf. Liverpool were superior in all departments; the athletic midfield of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai ran roughshod over their opponents, the attack, with Salah scoring and assisting for the 36th occasion to match Wayne Rooney’s record in the Premier League, was threatening where Erling Haaland was anonymous and the defence barely put a foot out of place. While City looked frazzled, Liverpool dazzled."

Richard Jolly of the Independent believes there is nobody better than Liverpool in England at present.

"City were battered before they were beaten," he pens. "Not by Guardiola’s greatest rival, either, but by a newcomer to this fixture. Jurgen Klopp had the bravery to attack City: others overcame Guardiola’s team by ambushing them, whereas Liverpool assaulted them.

"Arne Slot adopted a similar approach. Liverpool began at a ferocious pace; some of City’s players, ageing before our eyes, lack pace. Liverpool pulled clear when the game grew more open after they came on.

"They have beaten Real Madrid and Manchester City in five days, the sides who, a few weeks ago, could uncontroversially be called the finest in the world. But with every game it becomes clearer: Liverpool are now the best team in the land."

In the Guardian, Jonathan Liew pointed to the three players who are approaching the end of their Liverpool contracts being among the best performers on the day.

"Perhaps the ultimate measure of the standards Manchester City have set over the past four seasons was what happened when they briefly let those standards slip," he scribes. "Nobody noticed how fast the Titanic was going until it stopped. Nobody realised just how bloodthirsty the chasing pack was until it finally found something to devour. And on a riotous Anfield afternoon, it was Liverpool who came to eat.

"For Arne Slot, it helps that the messages are still fresh, that the structures are already drilled and honed, that he inherited a squad finely balanced between experience and youth, that he is so clearly prepared to change what does not work (the Brighton and Bayer Leverkusen games the clearest examples of this), that this team is so clearly a meritocracy.

"It helps, too, that there are leaders in the dressing room who can feel their own careers sharpening to a point. Perhaps it was not simply coincidence that Salah, Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk were probably Liverpool’s three best players here. All of their contracts are up in the summer. Salah has already started taking his shirt off a lot more when he scores, which is a clear statement of intent to potential suitors. Right now, it feels odds against that all three will still be at the club next season."

Oliver Holt of the Daily Mail was another to be greatly impressed by the overall Liverpool performance.

"City deserved their defeat," he writes. "They looked, once again, a shadow of the team they once were. And Liverpool deserved their victory. They were magnificent against the team that thwarted their ambitions so often during the Jurgen Klopp era.

"City look like a team on the edge of a precipice. Liverpool look like the team most likely to shove them into the abyss.

"Liverpool were brilliant to watch. They commanded the game from start to finish. They were better in every department. They were more hungry than City. They were quicker, sharper, more clever, more accomplished on the ball and more effective off it. Their appointment of Arne Slot to replace Klopp looks more and more like a masterstroke. Not much could have gone better for them."

And in the ECHO, our very own Paul Gorst believes it might be time for Liverpool fans to start dreaming.

"The member of staff at the Premier League who engraves names on trophies might not be on standby just yet, but those at Liverpool could quietly be checking to see if they are still on the same phone number as 2020," he says.

"Eleven points clear now of a Manchester City side who are at their lowest-ever ebb under Pep Guardiola, the stars could just be aligning for Arne Slot in his maiden campaign in English football. Could they really go on and win this title now?

"There’s a lot of football to be played before Slot himself will start truly believing the hype, but how could supporters - even this set; so often burned by false dawns, near fails and close calls - not allow themselves a daydream or two now?"