Back to the Premier League after the excitement of mid-week in the Champions League.
And after facing league leaders Arsenal last weekend it's arguably an even tougher proposition this week. Man City may not quite be top just yet but they are looking even stronger than they were last season.
The reds fought them down to the wire in last season's title chase, but this time around the reds have barely got out of the blocks.
After four extremely impressive league campaigns the reds have suffered their worst start to a league campaign in a decade and ahead of this game the injuries continue to mount. There has been much speculation that Ibrahima Konate will be unavailable meaning more square pegs in round holes in the Liverpool defence.
Erling Haaland has made an explosive start to his career in England and there is little doubt that City start strong favourites for this clash.
Can Liverpool compete? The mid-week goal rush should have boosted confidence amongst Mo Salah certainly but it's been a while since these two sides met in a game where form has been in such opposite directions.
Here is how the game unfolded?
As it happened...
The mid-week European games have pushed a lot of matches on to this Sunday.
Leeds v Arsenal has just got underway.
The rest are at half time
HT: Villa 0-1 Chelsea
HT: Man Utd 0-0 Newcastle
HT: Southampton 1-0 West Ham
Five changes from midweek.
Alisson, Milner, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Thiago, Elliott, Jota, Salah, Firmino.
Subs: Kelleher, Henderson, Jones, Tsimikas, Nunez, Carvalho, Bajcetic, Phillips, Alexander-Arnold.
Ederson, Ruben Dias, Ake, Cancelo, Gündogan, Haaland, Rodri, De Bruyne, Silva, Akanji, Foden
Subs: Ortega Moreno, Grealish, Laporte, Alvarez, Gomez, Wilson-Esbrand, Mahrez, Palmer, Lewis
We are underway at Anfield.
4' Bright start from Liverpool. Couple of clashes Silva/Robertson and Gomez/Foden. A free kick apiece.
10' Bit of posession for City ends when Cancelo crosses it straight to Alisson.
Liverpool defending in some numbers when City have the ball - trying to prevent them threading balls through.
15' Gundogan has the first shot on target that is comfortably saved by Alisson.
Phil Foden had appeared to be injured in the Liverpool half but staged a miraculous recovery when City launched an attack.
17' Robertson pings a cross in toward Firmino but Nathan Ake manages to get to that one first.
Fairly evenly matched contest so far.
20' Great strength from Salah to hold off Ake and powers forward to earn the reds a corner.
Robertson corner headed away, Elliott crosses it and Jota heads into Ederson's hands.
24' Jota plays a one-two with Jota but Ederson intercepts the chance. Falls to Robertson at the edge of the box but that's over the bar.
Liverpool working hard.
28' Too many touches taken by Elliott there after Salah had played him into a beautiful position.
Liverpool grafting hard and Salah being played more centrally is obviously creating much more danger.
31' Good move from City. De Bruyne peels away form Thiago and Haaland and Foden all involved around the box.
Eventually Bernardo Silva lashes the shot into The Kop.
32' City feed Haaland who tries to chip Alisson but the Liverpool keeper was alert to the danger and had closed the gap down, and saves.
35' Klopp furious. Rodri drags Salah down and no free kick. And then it falls to de Bruyne who flicks it into Haaland - he heads over fortunately.
39' Pressure now tilting back towards Liverpool who get a couple of corners. Robertson and Firmino working the City defence well down the left hand side.
40' Free header for Haaland from six yards - Gomez wasn't close enough to him.
But he heads de Bruyne's cross straight at Alisson.
HT: Liverpool 0-0 Man City
The reds, despite the changes in the defensive line up, have been committed and put in a good shift there in the first half. No breakthrough and arguably City had the more clean cut chances.
This first half display though makes a mockery of Liverpool's position in the Premier League.
Can the reds sustain this effort for the second 45 minutes.
No substitutions at half time.
Back underway.
51' Mo Salah fed by Firmino. It's a one on one with the keeper. Ederson pulls off a great save and it squirms wide.
Thought that was going to be 1-0.
53' Foden makes it 1-0. Scores after Alisson saves from Haaland.
55' Goal ruled out. Haaland pulled Fabinho down in the build up, never mind him kicking the ball out Alissons head.
Back to 0-0.
56' Jota should have made it 1-0 to Liverpool there.
Atmosphere more lively now. Guardiola not happy with their goal being ruled out.
63' Fabinho with the foul on Gundogan.
64' Alisson with a one handed save to deny Haaland.
69' Gundogan drills one wide and then at the other end Salah curls one wide too.
Subs being prepared.
73' Henderson for Fabinho, Carvalho for Elliott and Nunez replaces Firmino.
MOOOOO SALAHHHHH!
76' He is fed another of those through balls and he turns Cancelo inside out, powers towards goal and puts it past Ederson.
1-0!
78' Nunez powers forward and smashes one just wide of the post.
79' Akanji brings down Nunez. Yellow card. Henderson eventually fires over after collecting the free kick.
82' Cross was coming in for City and Haaland would have stuck that in but Virgil van Dijk with a great defensive header, puts it over the bar.
84' Alcantara with a nasty challenge there but he had slipped when running in.
86' Klopp fuming that Bernando Silva gets away with another foul on Salah.
Referee sends him off. Klopp laughs at the ref.
Silva still shoving Salah on the pitch.
87' Liverpool with a three on one but Nunez doesn't release the pass quick enough.
Should have been game over.
89' Gundogan replaced by Alvarez. Salah replaced by Trent Alexander-Arnold.
90' Yellow card for Jota.
Six added minutes.
90+3' Nunez with a powerful run down the side and he sends it across goal to midfielder Trent who can't quite reach it.
FT: Liverpool 1-0 Man City
Football eh. It's a funny old game.
Liverpool showing much more spirit than they have in the Premier League so far this season. A terrific performance and a great result. City are beatable.
Concerns at the end of that game though as Jota went down with a late injury
"This side is always hard for us, home or away, but the most important thing was to take three points.
"Our position is not the best and it is just one game so we have to carry on. Hopefully this gives us more confidence.
"I am not worried when there are chances, if I miss one then fine, they will come again. I worry when there are not chances.
"Today we created chances and when I missed the first I was calm because I knew the second would come. I just tried to stay focused and put it in the net because I missed the first one, and I got lucky."
Here's what the boss had to say:
"Result, perfect. Performance, really, really good, in an incredibly intense game.
"We defended at an incredibly high level for 99 minutes almost. They had their moments but especially in the box we did extremely well.
"This was for us obviously big today. We showed up today and that is all we wanted to do.
"City didnt have these counter attack situations, we had them three times. The situation around the goal is just sensational awareness from Alisson and outstanding from Mo. He might miss one but he will not miss two in a similar situation.
"Goals decide the game but there were so many good football moments against what I would say is the best football team isn't the world."
Klopp was sent off after being furious that Bernardo Silva was getting away with fouls on Salah but accepted the red card.
"In the end, (my sending off was) probably deserved, but you cannot have this situation. It is the clearest foul I ever saw in front of the linesman and he is not bothered. It is clear. They just watch the game but we [the managers] are involved."
