Carroll rampant as Reds put Man City to the sword

Liverpool 3 Manchester City 0. Eat your heart out, Fernando Torres! While the former Liverpool striker can't buy a goal for love nor money at Chelsea since his £50m switch in January, his replacement at Anfield scored twice against Manchester City to keep alive Liverpool's faint hopes of qualifying for next season's Europa League.

Andy Carroll was later lauded by manager Kenny Dalglish for his brace of brilliant goals with the Reds manager delighted that the 21-year-old has opened his account for the club. "It's great to see Andy getting off the mark," said Dalglish of the man who arrived at Liverpool from Newcastle on the last day of January. "The first goal was a fantastic strike and the second a good header."

Dalglish was keen to emphasis the role of Liverpool's other recent signing – Luis Suarez – in providing the foil to Carroll's no-nonsense style, saying: "You can see Andy and Luis building a partnership the more they play together. I thought Luis was great today and unlucky not to score a goal."

The win means Liverpool, in sixth spot, are five points behind Tottenham who remain favourites to clinch the Europa League spot on account of having a game in hand on their Merseyside rivals. "Theoretically, it's possible we could get in Europe," said Dalglish, "but as I keep saying, we are only focusing on one game at a time and we will see how many points we've got at the end of it. It's satisfying for everybody that we scored three goals and didn't concede any. There was not much wrong with the evening's work."

Certainly not from Carroll who, going into last night's match, had gone five games without a goal. But the drought ended in spectacular style on 13 minutes when he latched onto a loose ball and thundered a 25-yard shot past the despairing dive of Joe Hart in the City goal.

If that goal left City stunned, they were then dealt another cruel blow just a couple of minutes later when captain Carlos Tevez pulled up in pain and left the field clutching his hamstring. On came Mario Balotelli to partner Edin Dzeko up front for the Sky Blues but the action continued to be down the other end of the field as Carroll and Suarez caused countless problems for the City defence. However, it was Dirk Kuyt who grabbed the second goal on 34 minutes, the Dutchman sending a well-placed shot just inside the right-hand corner of the visitors' goal. And City's night went from bad to worse a minute later as Carroll out-jumped Aleksdander Kolarov to flick Raul Meireles' beautifully-weighted cross past Hart.

Liverpool eased off in the second-half, one eye already on Sunday's visit to Arsenal, while City looked like a side whose minds had been on their FA Cup semi-final clash with Manchester United from the start.  Yaya Toure did eventually force a save from Pepe Reina eight minutes from time but the last word went to Carroll who almost grabbed a hat-trick with a header that went just high.  "It's been a great day for me to get my first goals for Liverpool and a great result all round really," Carroll said later. "The reception I've got from the fans has been great, it's been fantastic since I got here."

For City boss Roberto Mancini it was a miserable Monday night; not only did they miss the chance to pull away from fifth-placed Tottenham in the  race to secure fourth spot and automatic qualification for next season's Champions League, but Tevez is a major doubt for Saturday's cup clash with United. "Carlos has a hamstring problem," confirmed Mancini. "I think it will be very difficult for Saturday – we think he will need another two weeks." ·