The Liverpool vs Manchester City rivalry will be carried on post Jurgen Klopp as Arne Slot has so far had Liverpool playing the best way possible, making them the strongest around while Manchester City are caught up in no man’s land.
On Sunday, hostilities will resume in Anfield as High-flying Liverpool entertain a struggling Manchester City in a top of the table battle, where the former will look to extend their gap-lead while the latter will seek discovery of lost form.
Liverpool has enjoyed a strong start to life under the watch of Arne Slot and the win over Real Madrid in mid-week, irrespective of the context, showed how much stronger they are becoming, as it ended a run of eight winless against Los Blancos.
They boast the best defensive record in the league and in attack, only Tottenham has scored more than their 24 goals. In Europe, they’ve conceded just once and won all their games.
It’s a different fortune for their counterpart, who have been continously exposed, especially recently, the last six games have seen them produce hedious numbers, difficult to comprehend that they do belong to a side under the watch of Pep Guardiola.
Form Guide – Liverpool vs Manchester City
- Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 15 games, winning 14, including each of their last six.
- Manchester City are winless in their last six games, losing the first five of this run.
- Liverpool has lost one Premier League game at home this season — they’ve not lost multiple times at home in the competition in the past three seasons.
- Manchester City has conceded 17 goals in their last six games across all competitions, as many as they did in 24 games before this run.
Head to Head
- Liverpool are unbeaten in the last four of this fixture played in Anfield, winning two.
- Manchester City are unbeaten in the last four of this fixture, winning the two at the start of this run.
- Both team have scored in ten of the last eleven in this fixture, including each of the last four.
- Liverpool has only lost once in their last 21 Premier League home meeting with City, winning 13.
- Liverpool has only failed to score in one of 27 Premier League home meeting with Manchester City.
Suspension and injury updates
Alisson Becker is back in training while an unfortunate news for the Reds is the injuries to Ibrahim Konate and Conor Bradley, who starred in their big European win over Real Madrid in mid-week. Federico Chiesa and Diogo Jota are both ruled out.
For Manchester City, Pep Guardiola will not be granted his wish of having his players back because the trio of Rodri, Mateo Kovacic and Oscar Bobb will sit out the match, and Jeremy Doku is a doubt.
Stars to watch
Mohamed Salah for Liverpool. The Egyptian has risen to the best player status, not only in the Premier League but across the world, overtaking Raphinha, who has slown down recently.
Salah also has an impressive record in this fixture, scoring or assisting in each of the previous seven in the Premier League, registering five goals and three assists in that period — only Ian Rush (15) has more than Salah’s 11 goals in this fixture.
For Manchester City, they’ll look up to Erling Haaland for inspiration as things haven’t been going too well collectively of recent. The Norwegian did bag a brace in Europe in mid-week and a repetition could see them leave Anfield with something of note.
While Mohamed Salah will be looking to atone for his penalty miss against Real Madrid, Erling Haaland will be hopeful of delivering the Cityzens a first win in seven and by the time action kickoff on Sunday, the host’s gap-lead at the summit may already be reduced.
Liverpool vs Manchester City Prediction
Despite the diffetent in fortune of the teams, it is still very much a mouthwatering encounter, one that could see an unforseen result unfold as you can not be too sure and can’t tell when a team out of form starts firing again.
The Reds has however enjoyed a dominant home record against their counterpart in the league and bar no real surprises are expected to walk away with a win.
Liverpool 2-0 Manchester City
Hassan Afolabi
