Manchester City v Liverpool: Premier League – live

4.59pm GMT GOAL! Man City 1-0 Liverpool (Haaland 29) If at first you don’t succeed… Updated at 4.59pm GMT 4.58pm GMT 27 min Nico Gonzalez is booked for a cynical foul on Wirtz, who slipped a couple of City players neatly and would have led a Liverpool break. 4.58pm GMT 26 min Doku barrrels past Bradley in the area, then twists back outside Gravenberch and whacks a shot from a tight angle that is touched round the near post by Mamardashvili. It was probably going wide but Mamardashvili couldn’t take a chance and his reactions were excelllent. 4.55pm GMT 25 min I thought, after Brian Brobbery’s equaliser for Sunderland against Arsenal, that both teams would come flying out of the traps. It’s been the opposite; Doku aside, the attacking players have done the square root of bugger all. 4.53pm GMT 23 min O’Reilly is going to continue for now. Gary Neville, king of the calf strain in his playing days, thinks O’Reilly’s game could be over. Updated at 4.54pm GMT 4.52pm GMT 22 min Maybe not: O’Reilly is down and needs treatment. Looks like a calf problem; he jarred it slightly when shaping to block a possible Salah shot. Updated at 4.53pm GMT 4.51pm GMT 21 min A better spell for Liverpool, with Salah getting on the ball in the final third. O’Reilly v Salah should be a fascinating contest today. 4.50pm GMT 20 min “Haaland penalty?” sniffs Peter Oh. “Mama(rdashvili) said knock you out!” 4.49pm GMT 19 min “You’re correct that this a big game,” says Paul Griffin. “Yuge. But does that mean that penalty incident is the biggest thing that’s ever happened? Or is it bigger than that?” Bigger. This liveblog should be written by Walter Cronkite. 4.48pm GMT 18 min Doku surges down the left and slides a square pass intended for Foden on the edge of the area. Instead it nicks off a defender and reaches Cherki, whose shot deflects off Konate and over the bar. Doku has been electric. 4.46pm GMT 16 min The penalty drama aside, it’s been a surprisingly bloodless start to the game. City are keeping the ball a lot better. 4.45pm GMT 15 min On reflection, that wasn’t a particular bad penalty from Haaland – it was a fantastic save from Mamardashvili because the ball would have ended up in the bottom corner. 4.44pm GMT 14 min There was another VAR check to see whether Mamaradashvili was off his line before the kick was taken. But he timed it perfectly and made a superb save. 4.43pm GMT Mamardashvili saves Haaland's penalty! 13 min Not the greatest penalty – swept low to the right but not hit with ferocious power. Even so, what a moment for Mamaradashvili, who got down excellently to push it away. Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has his penalty saved by Liverpool’s Giorgi Mamardashvili. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian Updated at 4.50pm GMT 4.42pm GMT 12 min There was a mistake from Konate earlier in the move – he got in Bradley’s way and kicked the ball against Doku, who was first onto the ricochet and then went past Mamardashvili. Liverpool aren’t happy. Their argument, I suspect, is that Doku initiated the contact. I’m not sure he did. Updated at 4.43pm GMT 4.41pm GMT Penalty to City! 11 min Mamardashvili’s knee caught Doku’s left foot and tripped him. It wasn’t deliberate but it was a foul. Updated at 4.46pm GMT 4.40pm GMT 9 min: Big penalty appeal for City! Doku gets away from Bradley and Konate, goes past the outrushing Mamaradashvili and then falls over. Was he tripped? There was an almighty scramble after that, with a couple of shots blocked. I think this will be a penalty to City. Updated at 4.42pm GMT 4.39pm GMT 8 min At the other end Salah, full of intent, knocks a bouncing ball into the City area, forcing the last man Dias to step across and clear. 4.38pm GMT 7 min Doku leads a City break and plays a brilliant angled pass to Foden… who miscontrols it. Crikey. With a good first touch he would have had a clear shooting chance on his right foot. 4.37pm GMT 6 min “I’m not sure how other Liverpool fans might feel about Wirtz being in the team,” wonders Peadar de Burca. “He’s obviously great, and he needs games to get his Premier League groove on, but why do I keep thinking of Juan ‘too good for the Premiership’ Veron...? Still, it would be great fun to hear Slot say, “He’s a f***ing great player and you’re all f***ing idiots.” It’d be even better if he went full Fergie and said ‘Youse’. Updated at 4.39pm GMT 4.36pm GMT 5 min Doku, who has made a lively start, nicks a loose ball on the edge of the area and forces his way between two Liverpool defenders. A third red shirt, Konate, steps across to clear. 4.36pm GMT 5 min Gravenberch is penalised twice in the space of a minute for tackles on O’Reilly and Doku. Nothing naughty or yellow card-worthy, but I need to write something here. 4.35pm GMT 4 min “Afternoon Rob,” begins Simon McMahon. “When you said ‘technical problems galore’, I thought you were offering a concise three-word history of Scottish football.” That’d need to be a four-word history surely? 4.33pm GMT 3 min A slow start, with City passing the ball around meticulously in the middle third and Liverpool trying to set traps. 4.31pm GMT 1 min Peep peep. Liverpool kick off from right to left as we watch; this, as you probably know by now, is Pep Guardiola’s 1,000th game as manager. 4.28pm GMT The teams, then. Manchester City, who made a few changes v Dortmund in midweek, go back to the XI that beat Bournemouth a week ago. Liverpool are unsurprisingly unchanged from the win over Real Madrid. Updated at 4.52pm GMT 4.26pm GMT Here’s what happened in the 2pm games. Related: Brentford 3-1 Newcastle, Aston Villa 4-0 Bournemouth and more: Premier League clockwatch – live 4.26pm GMT Apologies folks, we’ve had technical problems galore. When I say ‘we’… All sorted now, and this very big game is about to kick off. Updated at 4.27pm GMT 3.29pm GMT Team news Manchester City (4-3-3ish) Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly; Bernardo, Nico, Foden; Cherki, Haaland, Doku. Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Ait-Nouri, Savinho, Bobb, Lewis. Liverpool (4-3-3ish) Mamardashvili; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Ekitike, Wirtz. Subs: Woodman, Gomez, Endo, Kerkez, Isak, Chiesa, Jones, Gakpo, Ngumoha. Referee Chris Kavanagh. 3.00pm GMT Preamble Hope comes in many forms. Faith. An unlikely human connection. A crescendo of such defiant beauty that you briefly forget the utter state of everything. And a 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light. Brian Brobbey’s late equaliser for Sunderland against Arsenal last night was exceedingly good news for Manchester City and Liverpool, who should be full of the joys going into this afternoon’s game at the Etihad Stadium. They have the chance to close the gap on Arsenal to four and five points respectively. That’s the good news; the bad news is that only one of them – tops – can do it. City and Liverpool seem to be hitting their stride after dodgy spells earlier in the season. City have won 10 of the last 13 in all competitions; Liverpool ended their slump with defiant victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid. They kept clean sheets in both games, too. That won’t be so easy against Erling Haaland, the red wine of any contemporary clean sheet metaphor. Haaland is in rampant form, with 10 goals in his last six games at the Etihad, and has gone to another level this season. He was vaguely competent beforehand. Kick off 4.30pm.