Manchester City falters in dramatic fashion

Manchester City’s quest to be the second Invincibles of English soccer ended thanks to nine minutes of madness on Sunday.

Hounded and harassed by Liverpool’s high press inside a raucous Anfield, City fell apart through a series of defensive mistakes and went from being level at 1-1 after 59 minutes to trailing 4-1 in the 68th minute.

City defender Kyle Walker rubbed his face in disbelief. Pep Guardiola, City’s manager, looked at the ground in shock.

City recovered admirably to lose 4-3 but its five-month, 22-match unbeaten start to the league is over. Arsenal’s undefeated season in 2003-04 won’t be emulated for another year.

“We lost a little bit of control,” Guardiola said of the atmosphere. “We were involved in the environment at Anfield.”

This was seen as the toughest test in City’s final 16 games of the season — the team hasn’t won at Anfield since 2003. Liverpool was without Philippe Coutinho and the injured Virgil van Dijk, but showed once again that there is no more dangerous team in matches between members of England’s Big 6.

The win moved Liverpool level on points with Chelsea and second-place Manchester United, with all three teams 15 points behind City.

Arsenal’s class of 2003-04 remains in a league of its own but, 14 years on, the north London team is in disarray.

Arsene Wenger’s team lost 2-1 at Bournemouth, on the day the departure of Alexis Sanchez looked closer with Arsenal dropping the forward for the trip to the south coast. Wenger later said Sanchez’s future would be sorted “in the next 48 hours” as City and United vie for his services.