Man City 2-2 Liverpool: Five things you might have missed - Jota celebration & Guardiola’s pitchside passion

Manchester City and Liverpool played out a frantic, high-energy and hugely entertaining spectacle on Sunday, as the title crunch match ended 2-2.

Twice City went ahead via Kevin De Bruyne and then Gabriel Jesus, but Liverpool responded on both occasions, with Diogo Jota and Sadio netting at crucial times in the game.

Raheem Sterling thought he’d wrapped things up midway through the second half, only for the offside flag to be raised and deny the winger from inflicting a heavy blow on his old side.

But during such an action-packed game, there are a few moments which could have passed TV viewers by…

Keeping an eye on City

Jota’s goal after 13 minutes pulled Liverpool back into the encounter after City started the stronger of the two.

Positioned inside the box, the Portugal attacker passed the ball into the back of the net from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross, although Ederson may be disappointed with how he handled the effort.

But Jota’s celebration was a telling sign of how Liverpool view the title race, with the 25-year-old making a set of glasses with his fingers and gestured towards the irate home supporters.

It was more than a nod to how the title race currently stands, with Jota inferring Liverpool are ‘watching’ City, ready for any slip-ups near the top.

Goalkeeper jitters

Both goalkeepers made some good stops in the game, but the Brazilian duo also had moments to forget.

As well as Jesus’s goal, which Ederson may feel disappointed by, the City stopper also had a bizarre moment in the second period where he lost coordination as Jota closed him down and nearly messed up his kick, only a few yards from goal. Instead, he coolly ambled back and managed to pass it to a team-mate.

Meanwhile, Alisson’s kicking wasn’t at its usually accurate best, while he demonstrated a moment of indecision in the first period when he and Virgil van Dijk had a breakdown in communication, which allowed the ball to run through and nearly allowed Jesus to pounce on it.

Guardiola whipping up the crowd

City’s supporters roared into life when De Bruyne put them ahead after five minutes, but were very subdued following Jota’s equaliser.

The home fans responded again when Jesus put them ahead for a second time, and Guardiola clearly wanted them to maintain that sort of ferocity throughout.

He gesticulated to the crowd by twice throwing his arms in the air to try and whip them up and encourage more support.

Guardiola’s surprising alteration

Pep Guardiola semi-jokingly admitted last week that he ‘loves to overthink’ ahead of big games, and the Catalan threw another unexpected curve ball when the sides were announced on Sunday.

The City boss opted to select Jesus from the off against Liverpool, despite the Brazilian last starting in the league on New Year’s Day.

That decision seemed more than justified when the City No.9 netted at the end of first period, while Jesus’s physicality helped the team’s pressing and he enjoyed a real battle with Andrew Robertson down the hosts’ right.

Football royalty in attendance

Unsurprisingly, there was a huge media presence for this top-of-the-table meeting, and there were no shortage of former Premier League stars working as pundits.

Gary Neville, Jamie Carragher, Roy Keane, Michael Owen, Peter Schmeichel and Nigel De Jong were among the most high-profile ex-professionals in attendance, but Emile Heskey, Joleon Lescott, Tim Howard, David James and even Rafael Benitez were also in the ground.