Still savouring this one, and will do for days to come.
Normally, if I've seen a match live, I don't re-watch it in its entirety. For once I decided to do it for this one on City +, to get a clearer-eyed view of the whole ninety minutes. Because I was tense as hell for most of the match, and didn't really relax until we stuck the fourth in. I can't say I was really, fully enjoying it till then. Even then, I'd have preferred a fifth!
In fact, what clearly emerged on second viewing was that we thoroughly dominated them, and over both halves, not just the second. I had the impression watching it live that the first half was close, but that we'd just edged it. Not so. We actually thoroughly managed them. They had one serious shot on target — one only — and that was their goal. Otherwise Ed had almost nothing to do. They had two or three moments that appeared to be dangerous, but only because the lino kept his flag down following this stupid rule that he is supposed to do that and only if it's in the back of the net is it referred to VAR. On at least two occasions the Liverpool player was miles offside, with clear daylight between him and our last defender. By contrast, although we didn't create a lot of clear chances, you can see that they're really straining to hold us at bay. We're thinking faster, we've moving on and off the ball faster, we're much more inventive all over the pitch.
I'm actually having difficulty remembering a match where we have dominated this lot so thoroughly. The Mané sending off game doesn't rival it, in my view. Yes, we were already dominating the dippers in that one, but once Mané was off it did definitely change the whole nature of the game. There was no sending off here, no major players absent on their side (although there were on ours), but even if it isn't reflected in the number of goals scored, make no mistake, this was an absolute thrashing of the dippers all over the pitch. Watch it a second time right through and it becomes glaringly obvious.