Liverpool Hand Out a 3-Goal Spanking to a Horrendous Manchester City

Coming into Monday afternoon's matchup at Anfield, a Steven Gerrard-less Liverpool should have had little hope against a City side coming off their 5-0 hiding of Sunderland.

Upon reading the team sheet, this anxiety was compounded by the sight of 18-year-old John Flanagan making his first team debut for the Reds at right back.

Jay Spearing made his third start in a row under Dalglish and is by no means a creative midfielder.

By the time Andy Carroll had beaten Aleksandar Kolarov at the back post to Raul Meireles' cross to make it 3-0, Liverpool were out of sight. As ESPN's Ian Darke put it, from as early as kick off, Manchester City simply looked uninterested in being there.

It is easy to draw ridiculously optimistic conclusions from this result, as Liverpool quite literally played City off the park. But as good as Liverpool were, City were as abysmal as a team who had clinched relegation with 10 games left to play in the season.

Derby County in the 2007-2008 Premier League season showed more drive than this team of multi-millionaires.

First and foremost, attention needs to be drawn to John Flanagan on his debut.

Like the breakout of Martin Kelly before him, Liverpool's right back played with the composure nearing Jaime Carragher's who captained the Reds on the night.

On numerous occasions Flanagan opted to take an extra touch or two to make some space for himself instead of launching the ball up hopefully to Carroll. This allowed Liverpool to pass themselves out of defense, something made a little easier thanks to City's non-existent midfield.

Flanagan certainly has some work to do on his crossing, but with these kinds of prospects coming through Dalglish has little to worry about on the flanks of his defense.

Fabio Aurelio gave an assured display in the first half, getting balls into the box and even had a couple cracks at goal.

Carragher and Martin Skrtel gave an accomplished performance in the center of defense, but they were rarely under any sort of pressure whatsoever.

Carlos Tevez left the field early with a hamstring injury, and Edin Džeko was a lost little puppy.

Jay Spearing gave probably his best performance in a Liverpool shirt. He was absolutely everywhere, snapping into tackles and giving all 6'3" of Yaya Touré a game in the middle of the park. What was most surprising was his incisive passes from deep, opting to pass forward instead of square to Lucas Leiva.

Spearing was looking to hit Meireles on the left flank or Luis Suarez and Dirk Kuyt farther up the field when Liverpool broke forward.

You'd be hard pressed to pin down a static position for Luis Suarez this afternoon as the Uruguayan was absolutely everywhere. He popped up on the left and right to drag City's defenders out of position, but came in sharp to link up with Carroll through the middle.

A few times, Liverpool's No. 7 was even on the edge of his own 18-yard box chasing back a man who had gotten past him.

Liverpool fans certainly didn't have long to wait to see Carroll get off the mark and his two goals were well taken with both his left food and head. As well as he played, the England international simply should never have gotten as much time on the ball as he did.

On numerous occasions it seemed he had all the time in the world to bring down long clearances to his feet so that Suarez or Kuyt could join the attack.

Dirk Kuyt has already proven himself to Liverpool fans, but he was extremely influential against City, and his calmly taken, side-footed goal was a fitting reward for his performance.

Always calm on the ball, Kuyt was everywhere on the right flank and at one point broke free of no less than four players in blue shirts on the touchline through sheer determination. If Carragher and Gerrard were ever unable to play at the same time there would be no question to my choice for captain.

After the disappointment against West Brom, this win was just the tonic for Kenny Dalglish and a Liverpool team that showed all kinds of liveliness and energy. Arsenal will surely prove a sterner test for a injury-racked defense, but the likes of Spearing and Flanagan will take heart from their display this afternoon at Anfield.

Three points well deserved.