Soccer Football - Premier League - Liverpool v Manchester City - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - December 1, 2024 Liverpool's Alexis Mac Allister in action with Manchester City's Rico Lewis REUTERS/Phil Noble
LIVERPOOL, England (Reuters) - Liverpool piled on the pain for Manchester City with a 2-0 victory at Anfield to open up a nine-point lead at the top of the Premier League on Sunday after Manchester United's new manager Ruben Amorim enjoyed an emphatic first league win.
Mohamed Salah supplied a goal and an assist as Liverpool eased to a victory which ended with the home fans taunting City boss Pep Guardiola about "getting sacked in the morning".
Liverpool lead Arsenal by nine points after 13 games while champions City have now lost four successive Premier League games for the first time since 2008 and are down in fifth place.
Amorim's first Premier League home game could not have gone any better as Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee both scored twice in a 4-0 drubbing of lowly Everton.
Chelsea continue to thrive under Enzo Maresca with a 3-0 home win against a struggling Aston Villa the latest evidence that the Italian might have found the right formula at Stamford Bridge. His side are joint second with Arsenal on 25 points.
Tottenham came back down to earth from their 4-0 rout of Manchester City last weekend as they could only draw 1-1 at home with Fulham who ended the match with 10 men.
Fragile City looked ripe for the taking as they headed to Anfield and so it proved as the home side dominated.
Salah set up Cody Gakpo for a tap-in after 12 minutes and but for two glaring misses by Virgil van Dijk Liverpool would have been out of sight before halftime.
They eventually doubled their lead in the 78th minute when a terrible mix-up in City's defence ended with their keeper Stefan Ortega taking out Luis Diaz and Salah slotted the spot kick.
DREAM START
It was manager Arne Slot's 18th win in 20 games in all competitions as his dream start as Liverpool's new manager continued.
"These teams -- like City, I saw Arsenal yesterday and I saw Chelsea today -- they are all capable of getting the same winning streak as we have," Slot said.
"So let's not get carried away by one or two wins."
The Dutchman is right not to get ahead of himself but a nine-point gap with the form his side are showing already looks like a huge challenge for the chasing pack.
United are currently nowhere near being title contenders but Portuguese Amorim has quickly spread some joy around Old Trafford. Sunday was United's biggest victory margin in a league game since a 5-1 win over Leeds United in 2021 and lifted them three spots to ninth in the table after 13 games, only four points behind fourth-placed Brighton and Hove Albion.
After a nervy start, Rashford put United ahead in the 34th minute and after that it was one-way traffic.
Zirkzee doubled the lead in the 41st minute when Amad Diallo intercepted Jordan Pickford's goal kick and Rashford made it 3-0 just after halftime. Zirkzee completed the rout after more good work by Diallo as the fans sang Amorim's name.
"It helps to have a new face, it always helps," Amorim said. "We have to be very clear to our fans and this will always help. Rather than trying to convince the fans about this performance we have a lot to do, it will take time."
Chelsea are unbeaten in five league games since a narrow loss at Liverpool and were far too good for Villa with Nicolas Jackson, Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer all scoring fine goals.
Tottenham led with a goal by Brennan Johnson early in the second half but Fulham's Tom Cairney came off the bench to rescue a point before being sent off for a tackle on Dejan Kulusevski which was upgraded to red after a VAR check.
Tottenham are in seventh spot with 20 points.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
