Two second half blunders by Alisson turned the tide in Man City's favour to give them a long awaited victory over Liverpool at Anfield.
Up until then the game had been relatively evenly matched despite City's previous excellent form and Liverpool's struggles. Raheem Sterling bought a penalty in the first half which Ilkay Gundogan missed before a goal apiece in the second half had the game evenly poised.
However, a catalogue of poor passes from the reds keeper, newly returned from an 'illness', quickly gave the men from Manchester a two goal cushion.
Phil Foden added insult to injury when his excellent shot bypassed the normally responsive reds keeper and sailed into the net.
In between the home horror shows against Burnley and Brighton there had been two solid away victories over top 8 sides Spurs and West Ham - and though City started well, Liverpool saw plenty of the ball in the first half. Firmino and Mane both having excellent chances to get the games opening goal.
The reds welcomed back Fabinho, although his partner in central defence was Jordan Henderson. Matters were hardly helped when Thiago landed himself with a yellow card in the first three minutes of the game.
Ben Davies didn't make the bench this time but Ozan Kabak was named amongst the substitutes. Although he didn't make an appearance, Liverpool's post match position in the league likely suggests that the reds need to at least put round pegs back in circular holes, even if those pegs may not be the most polished in the squad.
Henderson and Fabinho coped relatively well, although it was Fabinho who was easily tricked by Sterling into conceding the penalty - relief when Gungodan blasted it over.
In the second half, perhaps nervous of Sterling's capacity to earn a spot kick, Trent Alexander-Arnold was easily beaten by his fellow England international. Foden shot at Alisson who parried but only for Gungodan to enact some revenge with a simple tap in.
The reds, too often playing the slow build up ball through Thiago, elected to go more direct and Salah got the better side of Ruben Dias who brought him down in the area.
From the spot, Mo Salah smashed it in, and the scores were level.
The reds thought they were back in it but Alisson gave the ball away twice within the space of seconds and Gungodan latched on to Foden's pass to put it away.
Just moments later, Alisson once again got his red and light blue shirts mixed up - stroking the ball out to Bernardo Silva who supplied a simple cross for Raheem Sterling to make it three.
It was a bad night for the goalkeeper who has saved the reds on countless occasions and has been widely credited with helping bring some of football's biggest trophies to Anfield in recent years.
Liverpool's heads were down now and Foden smashed a shot in front of Alisson and into the roof of the net. The Liverpool keeper was probably too busy shaking his head at his earlier errors to concentrate on the rocket coming toward him.
A tactical encounted for the best part of an hour but there is no doubt that this Liverpool team are enduring a lengthy dip in form after a number of outstanding years.
It may well be a matter of time before the reds get back to close to their best. But even a perfect performance for the rest of the year looks unlikely to catch Man City who are now 10 points ahead of the reds with a game in hand.
Not quite the enormous gap the reds had crafted last season, but of a similar nature.
City lost a staggering nine games last year before coming back strong again. The reds will be hoping that 2021 improves from this point on.
Liverpool have six days off now until they take on Leicester City next Saturday lunchtime. Not a title clash - a top four clash.
