Man City 0-3 Liverpool
Liverpool picked up all three points in their final ever league visit to Maine Road, as a Michael Owen hat-trick sent City down to their first home defeat of 2002.
Owen was finally able to silence those who have unfairly criticised him for not scoring from open play, after opening the scoring after just 3 minutes.
Danny Murphy's corner was knocked into Owen the path of Owen by Kevin Horlock, and Owen smashed the ball into the net to score his second league goal of the season.
The next quarter of an hour was a rather even affair, with no clear cut chances falling for either side until the 18th minute, when a Sami Hyypia header forced Schmeichel into a save, with the former Man United 'keeper tipping the ball over the bar, though Milan Baros was unable to control the ball in the area from the resulting corner.
A minute later, Man City's first real chance of the game arrived, with Nicolas Anelka getting a sight on goal after turning Traore in the area, but his shot was deflected away for a corner, which Jerzy Dudek dealt with comfortably.
Owen almost added a second goal just prior to the half hour mark, but following a good build up involving Murphy and Gerrard, Owen saw his close range effort blocked by Schmeichel.
An Emile Heskey cross was well collected by Schmeichel, and Owen narrowly failed to get on the end of a Steve Gerrard through ball as Liverpool looked to extend their lead.
But at the other end, Man City were threatening an equaliser in the closing minutes, when firstly Nicols Anelka's attempted cross was blocked by Carragher, with City players and fans claiming that it had come of Carragher's hand, and then with a couple of minutes of the first half remaining, Traore was required to make an important clearance, after Dudek failed to clear the ball himself, and the Pole was injured during stoppage time after falling awkwardly, although was able to continue after recieving treatment.
Man City started the second half brightly and won a corner within the opening couple of minutes, but were unable to use it to their advantage with the Liverpool goal remaining untroubled.
But Liverpool were very soon given a let off, after Dudek spilled a shot from Horlock and Eyal Berkovic played the ball across goal rather than going for a hot himself, and Dudek was able to gather the ball.
Man City really started to pile on the pressure, and forced a couple of corners, but couldnt quite test Dudek.
Owen was quick to ease any fears of a Man City comeback though, and grabbed his second of the afternoon after a run which saw him beat Distin and then put the ball past Schmeichel, following an excellent pass by Gerrard.
A long range efforts by Kevin Horlock was unable to trouble Dudek and an indirect free kick from inside the penalty area for Man City was played to Anelka, who struck a shot striaght at Dudek.
Peter Schmeichel made his usual venture into the oppostition penalty area in the final minutes of the game, looking for his first league goal since scoring against Everton last year, but the City 'keeper was unable to get his head to the ball, and was from the second of Man City's corners, Schmeichel was caught out as Liverpool launched a counter attack, which concluded with Michael Owen completing his hat-trick.
It was a perfect response from Owen to the media who have been so critical of him, and it was an excellent win for Liverpool, which keeps them in touch with Arsenal at the top of the table.
Match pictures from this game will be available later this evening.
