Much was made of the Liverpool full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold being dribbled past 12 times during the weekend's game against Manchester City. It was indeed a telling statistic — but not for the reason that many would have you believe.

Doku completed 15 dribbles in the game as a whole but none of his five crosses found a teammate. He had only 13 touches in the Liverpool box and managed just one shot on Alisson Becker's goal.

"I passed him a lot of times but it was then the final pass," Doku admitted to Manchester City's official website. "The most important thing after passing is to create something from it, and I played some good balls in front of the goal but we have to score. We have to analyze the game and see what I can do better and what we can do better as a team."

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There remains a question mark over Alexander-Arnold's ability to defend one-versus-one but it also remains true that his advantages far outweigh his deficiencies. With a center-back pairing alongside him as strong as Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk, it didn't matter in the slightest on this occasion. It never really felt like Liverpool was under sustained pressure.

Would it have been different had Erling Haaland been fit? We'll never know for sure, but there were enough other threats to contend with. Liverpool stifled Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden completely and Haaland would hardly have had a free run of a congested box when Doku's balls were thrown aimlessly into the middle.

The Belgian was likened to Sadio Mane when he came through at Rennes. What Liverpool has always had in wide areas though — with Mane and several others — is exactly what Manchester City now lacks: genuine end product in the final third. Doku and Savinho are tricky and skilful, as Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson found out, but they only have four Premier League goals between them so far this season.

"If I look at the game, I don't think that they were much better than us," Doku had told Sky Sports. "Two goals, one set-piece, and the second goal was a long ball, so well done to them.

"We know their qualities and that they like to play in behind. They did well and after it is hard to come back against a team that defends well like that.

"We played well but the situations that we had we could have dealt better with them. Today we played better against them than we did away. Of course there is a gap in points but today you can't say that they ran over us."

Perhaps not, but there is a reason for the 20-point gap between the teams in the Premier League table. The proficiency of the Liverpool attackers in the final third is very much one of the biggest factors, with Alexander-Arnold's difficult outing making absolutely no difference.