LIVERPOOL 1 MANCHESTER CITY 0

SKIPPER TO THE RESCUE AS REDS SINK CITY.

Steven Gerrard netted his first Premiership goal of the season as Liverpool got back to winning ways in the Premiership with a hard-earned 1-0 victory over Manchester City at Anfield.

The skipper struck with a venomous 67th minute long-range strike to maintain the Reds' impressive home record and seal a welcome three points against a stubborn City team. Prior to the deadlock-breaking goal it looked as though this game was heading for a frustrating stalemate and there'd been little to report in terms of goalmouth action.

Peter Crouch, Gerrard and Luis Garcia had gone close during an uninspired first half but it was not all one way traffic and the visitors looked threatening whenever they attacked. The contest came to life after the break and Bernardo Corradi fired narrowly wide before Gerrard's winner burst the back of the Kop net.

With City pushing forward for a late equaliser Pepe Reina twice saved the day with vital saves and Liverpool deservedly hung on to claim the points that sees them move two places up the Premiership table to 8th.

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louis' comments..

not the best performance, but the most important thing is 3 points are taken into the bag. i've missed the first 1o minutes of the game and could see that liverpool was struggling to get hold the game in the beginning.

credit to stuart pearce's men, they defended well, closed down really quick which made liverpool hard to control. hence, we should always pass quick,well and play one touch football if possible to unlock defences.
could sense that xabi alonso and momo sissoko's "Missing". bolo zenden was just not good enough, passing was poor.


i was quite surprised by the lineup at the beginnning. on the other hand, that's the best line-up rafa can put up due to injuries and fitness as well. steve finnan was on the right mifield, however, he didn't provide as much width as much luis garcia. probably he's a nautral right back, not a right mifielder.

you could see that gerrard is enjoying himself in the middle of the park and of course, he's improving each day, going to the best mifielder in the world. nice strike of the ball, capitalises the mistakes by joey barton and distin, and gave the keeper no chance at all.

i'm quite impressed with jamie carragher as well. his versality is great. right back, centre back, left back. sometimes you can see him in the middle of the field. especially, later part of the game, he was playing left back, he was superb. solid defending, didn't allow anyone go past him.

one goal is just enough, most importantly, is the 3 points. we can look forward to next game...

reina-7
carragher-8
hyypia-7
agger-7
riise-7
finnan-6
zenden-5
gerrard-9
garcia-6
crouch-6
kuyt-7



louis' man of the match: Steven Gerrard

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Scores elsewhere..

Charlton 1 Everton 1
Villa 1 Boro 1
Fulham 0 Reading 1
West Ham 1 Sheffied United 0
Bolton 3 Arsenal 1


cheers,
12.31pm


special thanks to gettyimages and liverpoolfc.tv for the reports and pictures.