Manchester City arrived at Anfield with a 100 per cent record and left with it intact, beating Liverpool 3-0 after Ryan Gravenberch was sent off in the 62nd minute. Liverpool had been impressive for the most part against a side that came to Merseyside unbeaten, but once they were reduced to 10 men they capitulated. It was Liverpool’s joint-biggest defeat at Anfield in the Premier League.
Andoni Iraola framed the afternoon as two matches in one. “We played two different games. One until the red card, and then after,” he said. “For 60 minutes, the players were very good. The second game from the red card was where City were better than us.”
The loss ended Iraola’s unbeaten start and was his first Premier League defeat in 24 matches (W10 D13) since January, a sequence that includes his time at Bournemouth. It also extended a troubling pattern at home: Liverpool are now winless in three Premier League home matches this season, for just the second time ever, though they have won at Anfield in both the Champions League and the Carabao Cup. That league run reaches back into last season, making it five successive Premier League home games without a win (D4 L1).
Former Liverpool defender Stephen Warnock believes the problem is as much about character as tactics. “The best teams in the world are also horrible to play against. Liverpool aren’t horrible,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live. “They’re an easy touch at the moment. They have too many players that are nice and they have to change that part of things. Liverpool have got a lot of work to do. They don’t have enough leaders at the moment, apart from Virgil van Dijk barking orders.”
Since the start of the year, Liverpool have won just four of 13 Anfield Premier League matches and have won more matches away from home than at home across that period. Their home form has dropped off season by season since 2023-24, although this season remains a very small sample size. Historically, away sides have a lower win percentage at Anfield (12.5 per cent) than at any other stadium in Premier League history — but that reputation is being questioned. Paul Scholes, speaking on The Good, the Bad and the Football podcast in September, said: “When you go to Liverpool, especially when Jurgen Klopp was there, the crowd played such a major part. It feels like that’s gone… I don’t think the fans are quite on board at the minute with what’s happening there. When we used to go there, I’d think, ‘how are we going to get the ball?’, because they were on top of you. Teams seem to have a lot more possession and look a bit more comfortable than they ever have.” His former Manchester United team-mate Nicky Butt added that “the likes of Fulham five years ago are going to Anfield and they’re beaten before they even go up the steps.”
City’s class exposed the other half of Liverpool’s problem. Liverpool have scored just seven league goals this season, only twice of them at Anfield, and only seven teams have managed fewer; City, by contrast, have scored 16. Across three league games at Anfield this season, Liverpool have failed to score in two. They have won twice on their travels and sit ninth in the table.
The attacking shortfall is bound up with availability. Early in the first half, the cameras found Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai watching from the Main Stand, all three out injured; between them they have scored six of Liverpool’s seven league goals. In Isak’s absence, 21-year-old Lewis Koumas put in a great shift but lacked a killer edge in front of goal at this level. The focus instead falls on summer signings Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola, players signed for price tags of over £100m from whom a match-winning moment was expected and neither of whom showed that quality. One moment at 0-0 in the 55th minute summed it up: Wirtz had Milos Kerkez and Barcola in acres of space to his left but chose to shoot and fired wide.
Iraola took encouragement from the performance even in defeat. “You learn a lot in games like today,” he said. “I am very proud of my players. They put the work rate and everything in today. It’s a loss and we didn’t get anything from the performance but I liked it a lot.” Deep down, though, he will know there is a lot of work to do — and getting the big-money signings to deliver will be high on his agenda if Anfield is to become a fortress again.