LIVERPOOL – MANCHESTER CITY | Sunday 5:30pm
The challenge between Liverpool and Manchester City, on paper the two big favourites to win the title, has an interesting new chapter. In recent years, the fight for the Premier League has almost exclusively concerned them, the two best equipped teams from across the Channel. Last May, the Citizens won by a hair’s breadth, at the end of a chase that from January onwards kept everyone in suspense.
Reds took a bit of revenge in the summer, when they got the better of Leicester 3-1 in July in the Community Shield match. A match that seemed to be a sort of handover but the first months of the new season have basically said the opposite. The regression of Jurgen Klopp’s men, who are inexplicably trailing at home, is clamorous: in eight matches they have collected only 10 points, even 13 less than Manchester City, second, just a glue behind the leading Arsenal.
Liverpool have accustomed us to unthinkable comebacks, but the gap to be bridged, although it is still October, is very wide. And an eventual defeat against Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions risks already being decisive. Not counting the matches to be recovered, Liverpool is fresh from the defeat in London against Arsenal (3-2) and has not won in the Premier League since August. The German coach can however breathe thanks to the Champions League, thanks to the double success with Rangers – overwhelmed 7-1 in the week at Ibrox – which allows him to stay in the wake of Napoli and ‘armour’ second place and qualification. In the Champions League, on the other hand, Manchester City’s positive series was interrupted and they returned with a draw from the away match in Copenhagen, conditioned by Gomez’s expulsion and Mahrez’s mistake from the penalty spot.
For Haaland and his teammates, it was an opportunity to perhaps definitively cut out the most serious candidate for the Premier League victory, who is suffering from numerous injuries. The statistics smile on City, who are unbeaten in five league matches against the Reds.
Liverpool-Manchester City: the prediction
The Champions League goleada against Rangers showed that Liverpool are still ‘alive’. It will therefore be a real game against Manchester City, despite the various absences Jurgen Klopp has to contend with. In order to stop Haaland’s fury, however, a super performance will be needed from Salah and his team-mates, who so far have not always been impeccable in the non-possession phase of the ball. A Citizens victory is therefore likely in a match that is likely to be spectacular with at least three goals in total
Liverpool-Manchester City
likely line-ups
- LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson; Gomez, Konaté, van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago Alcantara; Salah, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota.
- MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Ederson; Cancelo, Akanji, Ruben Dias, Aké; Bernardo Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne; Foden, Haaland, Grealish.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-3