FOOTBALL: Jovetic gives the Reds the away day Blues

MANCHESTER  CITY   3-1  LIVERPOOL 

Two goals from Montenegro striker Stevan Jovetic helped Champions Manchester City stay unbeaten in the league with a victory over their title rivals last year in Liverpool, with Manuel Pellegrini side coming out on top 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium with a convincing win.

The game saw summer signing Fernando handed his full home league debut for the Blues, with the Manchester weather welcoming him to the club in what was very wet conditions for all 22 on the field.

City looked to kick on from their 2-0 win up at Newcastle on the opening day, with a much stiffer test upcoming in Brendan Rogers Liverpool side in which had seen a few changes themselves since the end of last season.

The biggest name missing from the Merseyside team sheet from last year was one Luis Suarez, which saw the Uruguayan striker sold in the summer to Barcelona after his infamous biting incident during the recent World Cup in Brazil.

Liverpool have been one of if not the busiest teams in the transfer market this summer and shown they weren`t afraid to splash the cash either, with signings of Southampton trio Adam Lallana, Dejan Lovren and Ricky Lambert coming Anfield. 

The game came also on the back of the newest recruit at Anfield in former City striker, Mario Balotelli. Ballotelli watched the match from the directors box and judged on what he saw he must have had mixed feeling to viewing his new team mates in the game.

 In the first ten minutes of the game, it saw the home side in charge without really creating too many clear cut chances and saw Edin Dzeko drag his effort wide of the target after some good build up play that caught the visitors out.

PIC: Footballworld.com

Liverpool then forced their way into the contest with them starting to dictate the game to their own play. Raheem Sterling was causing many problems for City, with his pace down the wing and saw him waste a half chance too, when the ball came towards him and his attempt volley seen him fluff his effort on goal.

Pablo Zabaleta then missed a good chance for the home side, as with the visitors applying pressure on the champions they then carved a couple of rare opportunity out themselves.  The first being a Gael Clichy ball that was hit to the back post for the Argentine defender and could only see Zabaleta smash it high over the goals.

Yaya Toure then saw his shot from outside the box held firmly by Simon Mignolet in the Liverpool goals, as the wet weather didn`t help goalkeepers with conditions like they were playing in at all.

The visitors had the first real goal scoring chance in the game, as another former Blue player in Daniel Sturridge saw his effort saved at the near post by fellow England team mate Joe Hart, as the England number one kept his shot out and saw the ball cleared away.

Liverpool was dominating in possession and gave the blues problems without really putting them under any severe pressure at all and that saw typically the home side take the lead.  

Samir Nasri played a ball into the area which was cut out by Dejan Lovren as the defender got a header to it first, it had Alberto Moreno day dreaming and Stevan Jovetic more alert to just nip in ahead of him to drill the ball into the back of the Liverpool net and through the legs of Simon Mignolet for 1-0 as the defender attempted clearance saw him caught out.

In the second forty-five, the home side took over and saw them double their lead in the 54^th minute, when some lovely football by the blues saw Jovetic do a little back heel flick towards David Silva and with Jovetic making a run towards the area unmarked, it saw Silva play a ball into the penalty area and had the Montenegro striker put home for a 2-0 lead.

PIC: TimesofMalta

Daniel Sturridge then had another effort for the away side, which saw the England striker try to go far side and had Joe Hart deny him once again with the keeper throwing an instinctive right arm up to send the ball out for a throw in.

City made two substitutions with Silva being replaced by Jesus Navas and then Edin Dzeko picked up a knock on his thigh after Martin Skrtel seemed to leave his studs in on the Bosnian forward and him come off for the Argentine Sergio Aguero.

Within seconds of coming onto the pitch a pinpoint ball by Jesus Navas saw Aguero latch on to the ball and place it into the back of the net for 3-0 and confirm victory over their rivals and see Aguero turn super- sub so far in the opening two games.

However the visitors did pull one goal back when City defender Martin Demichelis was muscled off the ball by Daniel Sturridge and had the striker put a cross in for Ricky Lambert to head on target, but Hart`s save bounced in off Pablo Zabaleta for an own goal and saw goal line technology used to see the score move to 3-1.

The goal was the only smudge on a good team performance by the champions and saw them take early vital points off their rivals even at this incredibly early stage of the season, plus with games against Arsenal and Chelsea upcoming in the next few weeks, it means the blues will need to have their wits about them too.