Haaland's off day
In Erling Haaland's embryonic career you could argue he's had two off days and both have come against Liverpool. He's a perfect Manchester City player, then.
Black humour is often the only way for City fans to get through a fixture at Anfield and once again they left the place disappointed on Sunday.
This was supposed to be the day the wait for the away end to celebrate here ended, but even with Liverpool low on confidence and a seemingly unstoppable goalscorer in their team, it wasn't to be.
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The big battle at Anfield was tipped to be Haaland vs Virgil van Dijk, but the sight of Joe Gomez at centre-back encouraged Haaland to drift to that left-side channel to try and get an advantage against much the smaller of Liverpool's central defenders.
It took Haaland a while to warm up, his first chance not coming until the half-hour when he chipped fairly tamely at Alisson, but he should have been on the scoresheet before half-time.
City had struggled to get Kevin De Bruyne into the game, but the first time the Belgian had space to exploit in the inside-right channel he made the most of it. Haaland peeled off the back of Gomez and the delivery was perfect.
The only surprise was Haaland sending his header straight into the clutches of a grateful Alisson. It looked like the opening goal was destined to arrive, but for once the striker's radar was off.
It set the tone for Haaland's afternoon. It was his foul that led to Foden's goal being disallowed and when he had another superb chance just after the hour mark he was thwarted by Alisson again, who had to make a better save this time but was given an opportunity to do so by the finish.
Even in the sixth minute of stoppage time, the ball was falling to Haaland, but he couldn't get a proper connection on De Bruyne's cross and was probably impeded by Julian Alvarez going for the same ball.
Just as in the Community Shield at the start of the season, Haaland's radar was off. The opponents were unsurprising.
City counter-attacking mistake
Joao Cancelo's rash decision to try and win the ball ahead of Mohamed Salah will be the focus of the goal that gave Liverpool victory at Anfield and it was undoubtedly the wrong decision.
But on a day when City set up to stop those Liverpool counter-attacks, it felt like an organisational mistake that Cancelo was left isolated against Salah from a situation that began with Alisson having the ball in his hands.
City had been enjoying a decent spell of Liverpool pressure before the goal and maybe that encouraged them to send more men forward for the goal kick, but they were ruthlessly exposed by a long kick from a goalkeeper and a cool finish from a forward. It was too easy.
Ederson's brilliance
In the debate about the two brilliant Brazilian goalkeeper that are a fixture of this game, the easy narrative is often that Ederson is superior with his feet and Alisson with his hands, but that was put to the test on Sunday.
When Mo Salah got on the end of a rapid Liverpool counter with just Ederson to beat it felt like half of Anfield was already celebrating. Salah raced clear of Nathan Ake, but his shot was inches wide of the post.
Referee Anthony Taylor actually missed that save and from the resulting goal kick City thought they had the lead, only for VAR to deny them. But in amongst all the drama, Ederson's stunning save shouldn't be forgotten, even if he couldn't repeat the trick when Salah was gifted a second chance.
City's shape
When the team sheets landed at 3.30pm at Anfield the main topic of discussion from a City perspective was whether it would be Manuel Akanji at right-back or Nathan Ake at left-back, but in the end it was neither, really.
The Blues reverted to a back three, as they had done in the second half in Copenhagen in midweek. Akanji and Ake were on either side of Ruben Dias, with Joao Cancelo pushing forward in what was mostly a 3-2-4-1 when in possession, with Kevin De Bruyne and Ilkay Gundogan getting close to Haaland.
City did try and pull back into a back four when under pressure, but this shape gave Cancelo plenty of room on the right, with Andy Robertson often distracted by De Bruyne's presence in his channel.
A blockbuster showdown
This fixture is usually decisive in a Premier League season but it's already clear that Liverpool won't be having much of a say in the title race this season. Instead, what might be the campaign's blockbuster showdown has been denied us this week.
Arsenal are unlikely to last the pace at the top, but nine wins from 10 is a stunning start to the season, even if they had to ride their luck to win at Leeds on Sunday. With City losing Arsenal are now four points clear, it's unlikely to make too much difference long-term, but it could have done so this weekend.
City were due to travel to the Emirates on Thursday but the fixture has been postponed, with Arsenal required to play PSV Eindhoven instead, in a Europa League game postponed due to policing issues after the Queen's death.
There's no doubt the Emirates would have been rocking if City were in town, at a point when Arsenal fans are still dreaming. That match will now be rearranged to some point in 2022 and if it gets pushed back towards the end of the campaign then it might not held the same attraction if City have scorched clear.
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