City under seige as Reds arrive

Pressure on Guardiola’s side to respond against giantkillers Liverpool after Champions League debacle

Manchester City launch themselves into a foreboding run of fixtures at home to Liverpool on Sunday with Pep Guardiola under pressure to prove he has not lost his magic touch.

Dumped out of the Champions League by Monaco on Wednesday, City face a five-way scrap with Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United over the three spots in next season’s competition.

Liverpool’s visit precedes back-to-back trips to Arsenal and leaders Chelsea and having already seen his side lose at Anfield, Guardiola knows just how dangerous Juergen Klopp’s side can be.

“Klopp is a top coach,” the City manager told his prematch press conference, two days on from his side’s disjointed 3-1 loss to Monaco at Stade Louis II. “It’s an attacking side: win the ball and attack. He likes to attack in four, five, six seconds all the time.

“He’s a top trainer. I respect (him) a lot. Huge, talented players, English players and foreign players. I think it’s a really good team. A good test against one of the best teams in the Premier League.”

City go into the weekend third in the Premier League table, one point above fourth-placed Liverpool with a game in hand.

LIVERPOOL HAVE EDGE

It is a measure of the extent to which Guardiola’s stock has fallen in England that Liverpool could become the first team to record a home-and-away double over a side he has managed.

In addition, City have already lost five times this season and Guardiola has never suffered six league defeats in the same campaign.

But while Liverpool will draw encouragement from their 1-0 win over City on New Year’s Eve, secured by an early Georginio Wijnaldum header, they remain beset by doubts themselves.

The victory against City left them six points below leaders Chelsea, but they have won just three of their nine matches since and continue to fluctuate between bewitching and bewildering. A dismal 3-1 defeat at Leicester City bridged impressive home wins over Tottenham and Arsenal and they laboured to a 2-1 home victory over Burnley in their most recent outing.

Klopp enjoyed a good record against Guardiola when they were in charge of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich respectively, but he says reports of the Catalan’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

“I’ve heard about Pep Guardiola’s style and all that stuff, but it is real football and it is difficult to defend against them and a lot of teams have failed already.”

Whereas three of City’s five defeats have come against other teams in the top six —- Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool — Klopp’s side have shown a particular aptitude for top-of-the-table clashes.

They are unbeaten in the nine league games they have played to date against the other teams in the top six and have emerged victorious on five occasions.

City captain Vincent Kompany will hope to feature after overcoming a knee injury, having been left out of the squad for the trip to Monaco.

DEFLATED

Wenger appeared as deflated as his team afterwards when facing reporters. “Don’t worry, I know what I will do in my future,” Wenger told reporters. “You will soon know. Very soon. You will see.

“Today, I don’t necessarily worry about that. I know what I (will) do.” Wenger said the club were not aware of his decision and nothing would be announced during the international break.

It was a familiar tale of woe at the Hawthorns where Arsenal enjoyed 77 percent of the possession but managed only two shots on target — one of which was Alexis Sanchez’s equaliser.

Lacking any spark up front and in disarray at the back with Dawson given a free run to head in two corners, Arsenal are in danger of sliding out of contention for a top-four finish.

CAHILL HELPS CHELSEA GO 13 POINTS CLEAR

Runaway leaders Chelsea continued their relentless progress moving 13 points clear at the top of the table as Gary Cahil scored a late winner in a hard earned 2-1 win at Stoke City on Saturday.

Even without the injured Eden Hazard, Antonio Conte’s men, who have lost just one game in 2017, triumphed again when Cahill struck three minutes from time to make amends for giving away a first half penalty.