Cherki goal wins it, but City's reception at Anfield

Cherki's goal, described by the Guardian as a cracker, was enough to settle a game played out under a wall of noise aimed squarely at the away dugout. The Guardian reports Liverpool supporters directed sustained taunts at City throughout, tied to the independent commission's guilty verdicts against the club. The exact scope of those findings sits outside what's confirmed here, but the reaction inside Anfield told its own story: this was a crowd using ninety minutes to make a point, not just support a team.

For City, winning away at a rival who clearly wanted them to feel every bit of this was the only real answer available. Three points at Anfield is three points anywhere, and Guardiola's side took them while absorbing a hostile atmosphere that had little to do with anything happening on the pitch.

Cherki, again

Rayan Cherki has become the kind of player City lean on when a game needs settling. Premier League figures have him at 1,772 minutes in the league this season with four goals and 13 assists, a return that marks him out as a creator first and a finisher second for a 23-year-old France international still just 12 caps into his senior career.

At Anfield, the goal was the kind that cuts through noise. Whatever Liverpool's end had planned for the afternoon, Cherki answered it with the only response that actually counts on a Saturday.

Six wins from six, and a backdrop that won't go away

City sit top of the Premier League after six games this season, unbeaten, a run that suggests a squad entirely unbothered by what's happening around it. That the club can keep that record going while absorbing the kind of reception it got at Anfield says something about the depth Guardiola has assembled.

But results on the pitch don't erase what's happening off it. The guilty verdicts from the independent commission remain the backdrop to every away trip City make this season, and Anfield made clear that rival fanbases intend to keep bringing it up.