Manchester City suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season as they lost out 4-3 to Liverpool in an Anfield thriller.

The hosts were without record signing Virgil van Dijk due to a slight hamstring problem, while Loris Karius was preferred in goal to Simon Mignolet.

The Citizens showed one change to the side which won 3-1 at home to Watford last time out in the league, with Ilkay Gundogan starting in place of David Silva.

Liverpool started brightly, with Sadio Mane failing to make the most of an early opening after he beat the offside trap.

And nine minutes in the Reds hit the front, as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain drove forward into space and unleashed a ferocious low shot from 25 yards out which left Ederson helpless as it tore into the back of the net.

Mo Salah twisted and turned but shot wide as Liverpool turned the screw, with the pace of the game unrelenting.

City responded with Sergio Aguero almost getting a touch to a Kevin De Bruyne cross-cum-shot, before Leroy Sane saw a shot deflected wide with Karius rooted to the spot.

Just past the half-hour mark City had to bring on Danilo for the injured Fabian Delph, with Karius then having to field an effort from distance from Aguero.

Five minutes before the interval the visitors were level as a crossfield pass from Kyle Walker found Sane, who cut inside Joe Gomez and beat Karius with a powerful left-foot drive inside the keeper's near post.

The second half started at the same frantic pace as the first had, with Nicolas Otamendi seeing a header from a Sane corner go over after flicking the top of the crossbar.

At the other end Ederson had to be alert to deny Salah and then Oxlade-Chamberlain, before Salah saw an attempted cross clip the crossbar.

Liverpool then took control of the game with two goals in three minutes, the first coming on the hour as Roberto Firmino shrugged John Stones off the ball and dinked a superb finish over the advancing Ederson.

Soon after Mane saw a curling effort come thudding back off an upright, before he made no mistake from just on the edge of the box after Salah had taken the ball off Otamendi and played his team-mate in with a fine pass.

Salah got in on the act with just over 20 minutes left to play, as he returned a superb left-foot shot from all of 45 yards after an Ederson clearance had fallen at his feet, with Liverpool amazingly now 4-1 to the good.

City pulled a goal back eight minutes from time as substitute Bernardo Silva pounced after a Gundogan shot had been blocked by Joel Matip.

Amazingly in stoppage time it was 4-3 as Gundogan took the ball down well inside the area and found the net with a close-range finish past Karius.

A last-gasp header from Aguero then almost silenced the home faithful, before the final whistle arrived to allow Liverpool to celebrate a famous victory.