Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United can rarely have found a Liverpool home victory as satisfying as this. Manchester City were taken apart at Anfield, and that does not begin to cover the extent of their problems on a night when their designs on the FA Cup and investment for the Champions League were made to appear decidedly fragile by Kenny Dalglish's rampant team.
Roberto Mancini could not have envisaged a worse warm-up for Saturday's FA Cup semi-final with their local rivals at Wembley. Carlos Tevez limped off early with a suspected hamstring injury and, as has so often been the case this season, all of City's inspiration and guile went with him. They have at least been able to rely on stout defending throughout the campaign but even that asset was devastated as Andy Carroll scored the first two goals of his Liverpool career and formed a partnership with Luis Suárez that eclipsed the visitors' equally expensive attack in every respect. Dirk Kuyt got in the act as Liverpool made the contest safe inside 35 minutes.
City have now gone six Premier League away games without a win in 2011 and whether they will venture among the European elite next season is now open to question with Tottenham three points behind with a game in hand.
The two clubs' preparations could not have contrasted more greatly, with Liverpool bereft of defenders following defeat at Roy Hodgson's West Bromwich Albion and City having rested players for their rout of Sunderland. Yet the difference in their responses was even more profound. Liverpool were outstanding, City woeful. Whereas the home side compensated for absentees with spirit, ingenuity and individual excellence, the visitors were laboured, lethargic and devoid of imagination. All Sheikh Mansour has purchased on this performance is a squad high in stature, low in quality. City were anything but a team with designs on the Champions League and FA Cup.
A collective effort earned its standing ovation from the Anfield majority at half-time, in salute of the finest 45-minute display of Dalglish's second reign, but no one epitomised Liverpool's superior level of performance and desire better than the debutant John Flanagan. The 18-year-old had not made even a substitute's appearance before being drafted into a depleted defence at right-back yet he settled superbly. Liverpool's understandable reticence to give Flanagan the ball proved unnecessarily protective. A sweeping cross-field pass to Fábio Aurélio would have soothed any nerves in the teenager and defensively he was faultless, crunching hard but fair into Gareth Barry and muscling aside Mario Balotelli as the Italian attempted to break through on goal.
Balotelli's presence on the pitch was indicative of City's evening. In the 13th minute their captain Carlos Tevez was dispossessed by Carroll and appeared to injury a thigh in the process. He was immediately withdrawn but not before his opponent had swept Liverpool into the lead with an unstoppable drive beyond Joe Hart. Carroll's tackle on Tevez allowed Raul Meireles to strike from distance, though only into Vincent Kompany. The rebound was returned with interest by the England striker as his low, left-foot drive beat Hart purely for pace and power, not precision, and Anfield erupted to acclaim Carroll's first goal since his £35m transfer from Newcastle.
Hart had already tipped a Luis Suárez shot on to the post before Liverpool took the lead with the Uruguayan, displaying a sublime touch and an unerring knack of finding space all over the pitch, sent through by Carroll's quick thinking. The England goalkeeper was beaten again 11 minutes before the interval when Meireles, Suárez and Aurélio had shots blocked inside the area. The latter's effort was deflected across the area by Kompany, who appeared a defender alone against the Liverpool tide, and Dirk Kuyt picked his spot into the far corner.
City were reeling, in complete disarray, and seconds later Carroll glanced his second of the night past a despairing Hart when he towered above Aleksandar Kolarov to meet Meireles' cross with a glancing header.
In contrast to the pedestrian Edin Dzeko and Balotelli, Carroll and Suárez looked a double-act of rich potential. They embarrassed their City counter-parts in terms of industry and threat. City's £25m Italian substitute suffered the ignominy of being withdrawn with seven minutes remaining, although with Tevez injured and the game long lost he may well have been protected with the semi-final in mind.
Mancini does not escape blame having resisted putting Adam Johnson against the untested Flanagan, and there was an angry reaction from James Milner when one of the few City players to offer endeavour was replaced on the hour.
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