Sterling finally tastes sweet success against his former club Liverpool

For all Raheem Sterling's progress at Manchester City since signing from Liverpool in the summer of 2015, he has found success against his old club rather hard to come by.

In five Premier League games between the two clubs that had featured Sterling before Thursday night, he ended up with four defeats and one draw. When Liverpool were thrashed 5-0 at the Etihad last season, Sterling was sat in the stands.

Throw in a pair of defeats in last season's Champions League quarter-final, and the 24-year-old could be forgiven for not looking forward to a meeting with his old team with a great deal of optimism.

In fact, his only victory over Liverpool had come in the Capital One Final at Wembley in February 2016, and that came on a penalty shootout.

So this will have tasted particularly sweet for Sterling, and not just because he helped set up the winner for Leroy Sane that propelled City back into the Premier League title race.

He has been a figure of hate on Merseyside ever since he turned down a £100,000-a-week contract to effectively force through a £49million move to City three-and-a-half years ago.

A comment from his agent that Sterling wouldn't sign for £900,000-a-week became his Ashley Cole moment. The young man was depicted as a typical money-grabbing football star when, in fact, the reality is very different.

Sterling's public persona struggled to recover even though the reaction to his performances on the pitch has been predominantly positive after scoring 54 goals in 166 games and helping to set up many more for City.

The one blip has been against Liverpool, of all teams, and at least now he can enjoy what may prove to be a seismic victory in the context of this season's title race.

It will not go down as one of Sterling's greatest performances. Like City, he has momentarily lost his usual confidence and fluency after three defeats in five league games during the month of December. This was not a night to rediscover it in a frenetic game against a Liverpool side who arrived in Manchester unbeaten in the league this season.

'You have to be here to see this, the intensity,' Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness observed at half-time. 'Everybody on the pitch. The energy they must have expended in that 45 minutes must be like a normal 90 minutes in a Premier League game.'

Indeed, it took Sterling five minutes to get on the ball. When he did, he fell over it. Luckily for him, Fernandinho was on hand to take possession of the ball but not before Sterling's former teammate Jordan Henderson had trodden rather painfully on his foot.

In Andrew Robertson, he was up against one of the most accomplished left-backs in the country and theirs developed into a fascinating duel down the City right; two players blessed with great pace and neither prepared to give an inch.

That much was clear in the 12th minute when Sterling raced onto Fernandinho's excellent raking pass but lost out to Robertson as he tried to break into the penalty box.

When the Brazilian set his teammate free again just before the half hour mark, Sterling managed to cut inside and feed David Silva who took a touch when he should have shot first time and the opportunity was gone.

Sterling cut a more isolated figure than usual and the slightly nervous edge to his game was evident in the build-up to Sergio Aguero's goal before half-time when he failed to how the same clinical finishing as the Argentine.

He was a little unfortunate not to win a penalty following a tangle with Robertson, who appeared to wrap his arms around the City winger as he tried to check back and cut inside again.

The Scot turned the tables on his opponent, as he has done so often for Liverpool in the last two seasons, when he got free to meet Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross unmarked at the back post and set up Roberto Firmino for the equaliser.

But Sterling had the last laugh, drifting infield as City countered in the 72nd minute before slipping the ball to Sane who fired the winner in off the far post.

It could have been even better had Aguero converted from another Sterling assist or the man himself not fired wide in the last minute of normal time.

However, a Premier League victory over Liverpool has been a long time coming and Sterling deserves to savour the moment.