MANCHESTER, England — Manchester City laid down a marker in the Premier League title race with an impressive 3-0 win over reigning champions Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.

Erling Haaland saw an early penalty saved before giving City a deserved lead midway through the first half with a well-taken header. Virgil van Dijk thought he’d equalized only for his header to be ruled out because Andrew Robertson was deemed to be offside in front of Gianluigi Donnarumma.

City made the most of their first-half dominance when Nico González got it to 2-0 just before halftime with a shot from outside the penalty area that deflected in off Van Dijk, and Jérémy Doku rounded off his man-of-the-match performance with a spectacular goal in the second half.

The result moves City up to second in the table as they closed the gap on leaders Arsenal to four points after Mikel Arteta’s side had to settle for a draw against Sunderland on Saturday. — Rob Dawson

City’s winning week reveals how good they are

It has been hard to tell where City are at after a mixed start to the season, but this week has revealed that they’re actually pretty good.

Pep Guardiola’s team have seen off AFC Bournemouth, Borussia Dortmund and Liverpool in the space of seven days. More than that, all three performances were relatively convincing.

The first half against Liverpool was maybe their best 45 minutes of the season. It might have been their best 45 minutes since the 2023-24 season.

Guardiola has been careful to play down expectations after a miserable campaign in 2024-25, but they’re keeping up with the UEFA Champions League pacesetters at the top of the league phase table; sit second in the Premier League, four points behind leaders Arsenal; and have an EFL Cup quarterfinal to come against Brentford next month.

It’s a case of so far, so good.

There’s a long way to go this season — something Guardiola pointed out himself at his news conference Friday. All City can do is put themselves in a position to challenge for trophies in the new year, and they’re well on their way to doing that.

Liverpool might not be at the level that saw them crowned champions six months ago, but it was still a statement win. — Dawson

Liverpool watching rivals disappear out of sight

Perhaps the most fitting encapsulation of Liverpool’s tumultuous season so far was provided in the second half at the Etihad, when the home supporters turned their backs on the action and did the iconic “Poznan” celebration.

For Arne Slot’s side, the sight of its longstanding rival basking in such an emphatic win represents a new nadir in a campaign that has lurched from the sublime to the ridiculous. After a promising week in which the Reds beat both Aston Villa and Real Madrid, Sunday’s clash against a resurgent City simply proved a bridge too far.

Ultimately, this was a game lost in the first half, with Liverpool unable to replicate the quality and intensity that helped them see off Madrid so impressively in midweek. Slot might well point to the fact that fortune did not favor his side; City’s early penalty (which was well saved by Giorgi Mamardashvili) seemed like a harsh decision, while Van Dijk’s controversial disallowed goal — which would have made it 1-1 in the first half — undoubtedly swung the momentum in City’s favor.

Still, the fact of the matter is that Liverpool have not been good enough this season. After 11 league games, they have already suffered five defeats — more than they did in the entire last term — and have now lost every game in which they have conceded the first goal.

Defeat to City leaves Liverpool four points behind Guardiola’s side and eight behind leaders Arsenal. If the Reds cannot find a way to recover the mentality that helped them romp to the title last season, they might quickly find that their two biggest rivals are completely out of sight. — Beth Lindop

Doku looks consistent — and unstoppable

What a performance from the Man City winger. He caused chaos down City’s left all afternoon and capped off a wonderful display with a fantastic goal.

Conor Bradley looked comfortable against Vinícius Júnior on Tuesday, but he couldn’t handle Doku. The Belgium international won the early penalty that was missed by Haaland, and every time he got the ball, there was a feeling inside the stadium that something was about to happen.

At one point in the first half, he was having so much success against Bradley that Slot ordered Ryan Gravenberch to double up. Nothing Liverpool tried seemed to work, and it was only when Doku was substituted at 73 minutes that the torment stopped.

His goal, cutting in from the left and curling a right-footed shot into the far corner, was so good that when it was replayed on the big screens there were oohs and aahs from the City fans.

Doku has shown flashes of his ability since arriving from Stade Rennais in 2023. This season, though, he’s doing it consistently.

His ability in one-on-one situations is so good that when he’s playing like this, he’s almost unstoppable. — Dawson

Liverpool defense might be their undoing in 2025-26

As Liverpool closed in on their mightily impressive victory over Real Madrid on Tuesday, Bradley’s name boomed around the stadium. The home supporters inside Anfield were keen to serenade the right back after he had delivered arguably the most impressive display of his career, defending superbly to keep the tricky Vinícius at bay.

Unfortunately for Liverpool, Bradley could not match that level of performance against City and was part of a defense that struggled to contain the outstanding Doku, particularly in the first half. Alongside him, Ibrahima Konaté also endured a tough afternoon and was outjumped by Haaland for the hosts’ opener, while Robertson was replaced by Milos Kerkez early in the second half.

After keeping back-to-back clean sheets against Villa and Madrid, this was a reminder that Liverpool still have work to do defensively if they hope to salvage anything from this season. The return of goalkeeper Alisson Becker after the international break should help breed confidence among the back line, but the Reds’ leaky defense looks like it could very well be their undoing this term. — Lindop

In top form, Haaland is rewriting the record books

Missing an early penalty in a big game might have had a negative impact on a lot of strikers.

Not Haaland. He saw his ninth-minute spot kick saved by Mamardashvili, but it didn’t stop the Norway international from making his mark.

Matheus Nunes was clever in delaying his cross from the right just enough so that Robertson turned his back. The ball into the box was quality. After that, though, it was all about Haaland.

He peeled off toward the back post and rose above Konaté to head the ball back across the goal and into the corner. In many ways, it was a typical Haaland goal.

He wasn’t the star against Liverpool, but he still got his 19th goal of the season and his 14th in 11 Premier League games. The 25-year-old has also moved to 99 Premier League goals in just 108 appearances.

Those are scarcely believable numbers.

Alan Shearer, the top goal scorer in Premier League history, needed 124 games to reach 100 goals. With Haaland in form like this, it’s highly unlikely he’ll need another 16 games to reach the 100 club. Another record is about to go. — Dawson

Salah’s best days look to be behind him

If it was against City at the Etihad last season that Mohamed Salah enjoyed one of his finest outings in a Liverpool shirt, then it was on the same turf this term that the forward’s recent decline was laid bare.

In February, the Egypt international scored Liverpool’s opener and assisted Dominik Szoboszlai for their second en route to a victory that saw them make a giant stride toward the title. On Sunday, however, Salah toiled up against the prodigious Nico O’Reilly as Liverpool slumped to yet another miserable defeat.

To the 33-year-old’s credit, he battled until the end, even after spurning a great opportunity late in the second half. But, despite having scored in both of Liverpool’s past two league games (against Brentford and Aston Villa), he looked like a shadow of his former self against City, failing to hit the target with any of his three shots.

Salah has shown enough in recent outings to suggest Father Time has not caught up with him just yet, but his latest showing proves his days as Liverpool’s main man might just be behind him. — Lindop

Six former men’s college basketball players at three schools — New Orleans, Mississippi Valley State and Arizona State — participated in gambling schemes that included game manipulation or sharing information with known bettors, the NCAA announced Friday.

Dae Dae Hunter, Dyquavian Short and Jamond Vincent, who played for New Orleans last season, manipulated their performance for betting purposes in seven games, according to the NCAA findings. In all seven games, Hunter, Short and Vincent allegedly lost or attempted to lose by more points than the spread at sportsbooks as part of a conspiracy with outside bettors, the NCAA said.

Two players at Mississippi Valley State, Donovan Sanders and Alvin Stredic, were offered money to throw a Jan. 6, 2025, game against Alabama A&M, according to the NCAA. Sanders also was overheard discussing “throwing the game” ahead of a Dec. 21, 2024, contest against Tulsa, the NCAA found.

Former Arizona State forward B.J. Freeman was found to have shared information with a former teammate who was betting on Freeman’s performance at a daily fantasy site.

Vincent and Stredic denied participating in any gambling schemes when reached by ESPN on Friday. Attempts to reach Short, Hunter, Sanders and Freeman were unsuccessful.

The NCAA permanently revoked eligibility for all six players. None of them is enrolled at his previous school.

In the New Orleans case, the NCAA found that Hunter, Short and Vincent were overheard discussing the alleged scheme before and during a Dec. 28, 2024, game against McNeese State. An unidentified athlete told the NCAA that during a timeout near the end of the contest, Short instructed the player not to score any more points, according to the findings. New Orleans was around a 23-point underdog and lost by 25.

A second unidentified athlete told the NCAA that Short told him a bettor had contacted him on social media about throwing the McNeese State matchup, according to the report. The athlete said that after the game, Short and Hunter met someone about 45 minutes outside New Orleans to pick up cash, according to the NCAA.

Vincent’s texts included screenshots from FanDuel and DraftKings with specific amounts to wager on the McNeese State game, according to the NCAA.

The NCAA also found text messages on Short’s phone in which he and Hunter discussed receiving $5,000 and spoke with a known bettor on Jan. 20, 2025, the day of a game against Northwestern State.

In total, the NCAA found the athletes participated in the scheme against McNeese State, Vanderbilt, Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Southeastern Louisiana, East Texas A&M, Northwestern State and Incarnate Word. New Orleans lost and failed to cover the spread in six of the seven games. The Privateers beat East Texas A&M 82-73 on Jan. 18.

New Orleans suspended Short, Hunter and Vincent in late January.

At Mississippi Valley State, an unidentified men’s basketball player said he overheard teammate Sanders talking on the phone about “throwing the game” against Tulsa, according to the NCAA report. Sanders then asked the player to join the call with the bettor, who wanted to know if other players would participate in the alleged scheme. Sanders later instructed the player to delete their texts, according to the NCAA.

Sportsbooks flagged Mississippi Valley State’s game against Tulsa after a series of large bets came in on the Golden Hurricane to cover the 26-point spread, according to documents obtained by ESPN in an open records request. Mississippi Valley State lost by 45.

The NCAA found that Sanders and Stredic provided information to bettors on a second game, against Alabama A&M on Jan. 6. Sanders told NCAA investigators he and Stredic were offered money to throw that game by another bettor, who told them to play poorly in the first half.

Stredic denied the NCAA’s allegation that he knowingly provided information to individuals that Mississippi Valley State would lose by more points than the spread against Alabama A&M.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Stredic told ESPN on Friday. “I gave the NCAA my phone, and that was it, and then I finished the season.”

Stredic added that he spoke with an FBI agent in recent weeks to discuss the matter.

In its report, the NCAA said the betting handle for the Mississippi Valley State-Alabama A&M game was 3.6 times higher than the average amount wagered on SWAC games.

In all, the NCAA found that Sanders provided inside information to bettors in two games while Stredic did for one.

The NCAA found that former Arizona State guard Freeman gave former Fresno State player Mykell Robinson information before at least four games so that Robinson could bet on his statistics, according to its report. Freeman also gave information to his then-girlfriend before two games so she could wager on his stats.

Robinson and Freeman were teammates at Dodge City Community College in Kansas in 2021-22.

Robinson was one of three athletes the NCAA banned at Fresno State and San Jose State. The NCAA announced in September that Robinson had manipulated his performance for gambling purposes and conspired with two players to bet on his statistics.

ESPN previously reported that an NBA gambling ring placed suspicious bets on men’s college basketball games, including ones involving Mississippi Valley State. Some of the same accounts also placed large wagers on prop bets involving former Toronto Raptors player Jontay Porter and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier.

Rozier was charged last month in a federal indictment with manipulating his performance and providing inside information to bettors. Through an attorney, Rozier has denied the allegations.

Porter admitted to manipulating his performance in an NBA game for the benefit of gamblers. He pleaded guilty to federal charges last year and is awaiting sentencing.

The NCAA said in October that it had opened investigations into potential betting violations by approximately 30 current or former men’s basketball players.