The reigning champions Manchester City will face their perennial challengers and least season’s Premier League runners-up Liverpool, albeit under different circumstances away from home at the Anfield Stadium in Liverpool on Sunday.
Manchester City have gotten their title defence off to a flying start and besides two draws, they have won all their matches so far, collecting 24 points. They posted another strong victory by a margin of 4-0 over Southampton last weekend. Meanwhile, Liverpool are already 13 points behind their old foes in 11th place and suffered a 3-2 loss at the hands of table-toppers Arsenal in a classic encounter in London last week.
The last five years of the Premier League have been defined by the title race between Manchester City and Liverpool. Pep Guardiola’s side hold the upper hand with four title wins while Liverpool, led by Jurgen Klopp have only won once in 2019/20.
However, Liverpool’s start to the Premier League season has been quite strange this time around with the Reds falling behind massively and struggling to get off the blocks. Such has been their misery at the initial stages, that Klopp has already conceded that hat Sunday’s clash will not decide the destiny of the title for his side this time around.
The title race has instead been governed by Manchester City and Arsenal after the early showings so far. Liverpool were dealt a further blow after losing to Arsenal 3-2 at the Emirates Stadium in London last week and although they were left to rue a bunch of controversial decisions, they did bounce back and showed significant progress against Rangers in the UEFA Champions League this week.
Tottenham Hotspur attacker Son Heung-min scored a 13-minute hat-trick against Leicester City off the bench earlier this season, but anything that the South Korean can do, Mohamed Salah can do better. The Egyptian goal machine shook off his poor run of form in the final third this season and recorded the fastest Champions League hattrick in history, by bringing up his treble of goals in the space of six minutes.
A second-half substitute in the 7-1 demolition of the Scottish giants, Salah found the back of the net at the 75th, 80th, and 81st minutes of the contest in which Scott Arfield had initially put Rangers one goal to the good. However, Salah, along with his teammates Darwin Nunez, Harvey Elliott and Roberto Firmino (with the latter getting a brace) completed a dramatic turnaround for those in red and ended up making a major European statement.
Heading into the high-profile affair with Manchester City, Liverpool will be worried about their form at the back. They have conceded 12 goals already this season, including three in the last weekend by Arsenal. The likes of Virgil Van Dijk and Joel Matip aren’t exactly in the best of shape to face the Norwegian goal machine named Erling Haaland wreaking havoc in Manchester.
Liverpool are currently 11th in the Premier League and will welcome Man City to Anfield with their unbeaten home record for 2022-23 still intact. Klopp’s side have now gone 27 top-flight games without suffering defeat at their Merseyside headquarters and their primary goal on Sunday will be about preserving that record.
While Liverpool’s Champions League fixture with Rangers saw eight goals flying into the back of the net at Ibrox in midweek, the contest between Manchester City and FC Copenhagen proved to be a dull affair. Without the services of Erling Haaland, Guardiola’s side settled for a goalless draw away from home against a side that they had beaten 5-0 almost a week ago.
A gem of a strike from Rodri was disallowed for a handball by Riyad Mahrez, who saw a penalty saved by the impenetrable wall that was Kamil Grabara, and City only had 10 men on the field for half-an-hour after new signing Sergio Gomez was given his marching orders.
With that being said, that lone point proved to be enough for Guardiola’s men to book their slot in the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League as they once again begin their journey for the elusive continental crown that continues to attract and tease them.
At the domestic front, Manchester City are just behind Arsenal at the top of the league with Pep Guardiola’s protégé Mikel Arteta maintaining a one-point lead over his previous employers. Besides the couple of draws they suffered, City have been imperious in the league all season and are currently on a three-game winning run heading into Anfield.
It goes without saying that, led by a dramatic start by Haaland to his career in England, City are the leading goal-scorers in the English top flight by some distance. They have found the back of the net on 33 occasions, 10 ahead of second-best Arsenal. City have also conceded only nine goals so far – the joint-lowest in the league along with Newcastle United.
The champions can still proudly boast to possess a 22-game unbeaten away run in the Premier League, one of which saw City and Liverpool draw 2-2 at Anfield last term before playing out an identical stalemate at the Etihad, but Klopp won the battle of wits with Guardiola in July’s Community Shield.
LIV vs MCI, Premier League 2022/23
Date: 16th October, 2022
Time: 9:00 PM IST
Venue: Anfield Stadium, Liverpool
FORM GUIDE:
Liverpool Premier League form:
- L-W-W-D-D-L
Liverpool form (all competitions):
- L-W-D-W-L-W
Manchester City Premier League form:
- W-W-D-W-W-W
Manchester City form (all competitions):
- W-W-W-W-W-D
HEAD-TO-HEAD:
Liverpool wins: 107
Draws: 56
Manchester City wins: 58
TEAM NEWS:
Liverpool Team News:
News surrounding the availability of players continue to depress the Merseyside faithful as the treatment rooms in Liverpool are still working at full capacity with a plethora of players out injured. Arthur Melo, Luis Diaz, Joel Matip, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain remain out of contention for Liverpool for the clash with the defending champions while Curtis Jones is on the road to recovery and has chances to enter the squad.
Andy Robertson was able to come off the bench in the Champions League win over Rangers and is now primed to replace Kostas Tsimikas at left-back, with Joe Gomez deputising for Alexander-Arnold on the opposite flank.
Once again, Klopp is facing the 4-3-3 vs. 4-2-3-1 dilemma for the visit of the champions, but none of Salah, Nunez, Firmino or Diogo Jota – who set up all of Salah’s goals in midweek – deserve to be dropped.
However, the Liverpool boss may ultimately side with the 4-3-3 amid fears of his crop being overrun in midfield, with Firmino possibly being the unlucky one to take up a spot on the bench.
Ibrahima Konate has also emerged as a late doubt with a muscle injury, so Joe Gomez may shift across to the heart of defence as James Milner comes in at right-back.
Manchester City Team News:
Compared to their arch-rivals, Manchester City are in much better shape and Erling Haaland will return to torment Liverpool fans at the Anfield Stadium after getting a well-deserved and precautionary rest in the middle of the week.
With that being said, City will miss the services of John Stones, Kalvin Phillips and Kyle Walker. Recently recovered Aymeric Laporte is also expected to concede his place to Ruben Dias while Nathan Ake will be returning to the fold as well alongside Manuel Akanji and Joao Cancelo. Ake might even be deployed out of his usual position on the left flank.
Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva are also set to earn recalls to the starting lineup, which could see Ilkay Gundogan demoted down to the bench, unless Guardiola opts to drop Jack Grealish and field Silva in a more advanced position.
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Alisson; Milner, Gomez, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Fabinho, Thiago; Salah, Nunez, Jota
Manchester City possible starting lineup:
Ederson; Cancelo, Akanji, Dias, Ake; Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne; Foden, Haaland, Grealish
Predictions:
Given the tendency of aggressive and attacking strategy that both sides have deployed against each other in the past, goals are virtually always guaranteed when this clash of the titans occurs. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp will certainly loop to make up for their defensive deficiencies with attacking flair if they wish to preserve their stellar unbeaten Anfield run.
A well-rested Haaland would strike fear into the hearts of any defence in the country, however, and Pep Guardiola’s side are always a dangerous beast to contend with after a setback. Therefore, fans can envisage the Reds coming on the wrong end of the scoreline in another classic free-scoring match that might see several goals.
