Before joining his triumphant players to celebrate in front of Manchester City’s delirious away support, Pep Guardiola looked to the heavens above Anfield and blew a kiss. This stadium has tormented the City manager more often than most over the past decade but, should the title race twist as dramatically as this victory, his 11th and possibly final visit to Liverpool will be cherished as the turning point.
Was Guardiola’s kiss one of thanks for Gianluigi Donnarumma, the goalkeeper who deflated Liverpool in the Champions League last season with Paris Saint‑Germain and denied them a 99th-minute equaliser with a stunning save from Alexis Mac Allister? Or for the nerveless precision of Erling Haaland, who had completed the visitors’ comeback from the penalty spot six minutes earlier? The resilience of Marc Guéhi and co in the face of Liverpool’s second-half recovery merited a smacker, too. The former Liverpool transfer target would eventually get a kiss from his manager, deservedly so.
However, Guardiola’s reaction, his sheer relief, told a bigger story: that City’s race is not yet run. Arsenal’s evening mirrored Dominik Szoboszlai’s – from ecstasy to despair in the blink of a remarkable finale. In the 74th minute, when Szoboszlai repeated his impact against Arsenal and swept a 30-yard free-kick into the Kop goal, the league leaders were nine points clear and the obituaries were bring written for City. By the 93rd it was down to six points and by the 100th, with Liverpool down to 10 men, City had saved the title race at a ground where they last won in front of a crowd in 2003.
Guardiola’s only previous Premier League win here had come behind closed doors during the Covid pandemic. He had endured defeat here six times. And now this. A result worthy of sending a kiss to the heavens.
Amid the maelstrom at Anfield there was a composure and experience to City to support their manager’s view that anything can happen over the final 13 league games. From Bernardo Silva to Rodri to Donnarumma, there were defining contributions from players who know what it takes to get over the line. Guéhi belonged in their company. Arne Slot felt the City defender should have been sent off at 0-0 for a shirt pull on Mohamed Salah but also, pointedly, remarked on what “a good signing” he is for Guardiola’s team.
Guéhi was treated like some kind of ex-Liverpool villain as Anfield booed his every touch in a City shirt. It was a mystifying reception in many respects. To recap: he was denied a move to Liverpool by Crystal Palace last summer after undergoing a medical and doing club media to announce the transfer. He then joined the only club who made an offer for him in January. Liverpool signed Jeremy Jacquet for £60m instead. The only possible explanation for the boos was Guéhi’s assertion, upon signing for City, that he was “now at the best club in England”. That would rankle Liverpool whether they were reigning champions or not.
The Kop could not deny that Guéhi was part of the better team in the first half at Anfield, however, nor that his defending was cause for envy. The England international was unfazed by the noise around him during a first 45 minutes in which the biggest threat to City came from City themselves, and their risky strategy of playing out through Donnarumma. Even Guardiola did not appear on board with the tactic at times and berated his goalkeeper for his distribution on a few occasions.
Guéhi’s first serious test came when Florian Wirtz released Hugo Ekitiké with a pinpoint pass from deep. The defender was across quickly to block the in-form striker’s path, stand tall, and then smother the shot. There was also a vital block from Guéhi to deny Wirtz’s goal-bound shot in the second half and interception when Curtis Jones almost put Salah through on goal late on. But, like everyone else in sky blue, the composure of the £20m recruit was shaken by Liverpool’s vast improvement after the interval.
It was the response that Anfield demanded and Slot needed after a passive, error-strewn first-half display that offered the initiative to City. Against a more aggressive and braver Liverpool team the visitors were ruffled, and Guéhi was finally beaten when Szoboszlai slipped a pass into Salah. The defender pulled the Egypt international to the ground by his shirt, just outside the box, but the video assistant referee deemed he had not denied a clear goalscoring opportunity. The irony was not lost on Slot when Szoboszlai was later dismissed for a similar offence.
Guéhi recovered impressively from the reprieve and commanded his penalty area when Liverpool launched everything in search of a stoppage-time equaliser. The 25-year-old provided a platform for a truly remarkable City victory, one that could reverberate for some time. Guardiola knows this is not over.
