Liverpool senses opportunity to leave City in its wake
LONDON (Reuters) – Liverpool has a giltedged chance to inflict a hammer blow on Manchester City’s hopes of a third successive Premier League crown in a seismic clash at Anfield on Sunday, but failure to do so could revive bitter memories.
Rewind to the third day of the year at the Etihad Stadium and Liverpool was in a similar position of strength.
Victory then would have shot it 10 points clear. The Reds lost a frenetic clash 2-1, however, and City relentlessly reeled them in to win an epic title race with 98 points to Liverpool’s 97.
This time Liverpool is at home, and victory would put it nine points clear. It feels like a chance the Reds cannot afford to pass up as they seek a first league title since 1990.
“With a deficit like that – even in mid-November – Pep Guardiola knows he would have a mountain to climb to win the Premier League,” said former England striker and BBC pundit Alan Shearer.
Third-place Leicester City welcomes fifthplace Arsenal on Saturday after fourthplace Chelsea takes on Crystal Palace, but all eyes will be focused on Merseyside.
Rarely does a fixture, especially one played as early in the season, justify the hype but such is the quality and reliability of Liverpool and City, the consequences of the result are difficult to play down.
Liverpool has seemingly forgotten how to lose. The Reds are unbeaten in 28 league matches since losing to City and at Anfield they have not lost in the league since 2017.
Yet neither side has been quite at its best of late, relying on the never-say-die attitude that has become as important a weapon as the fearsome forward lines.
Both clawed back 1-0 deficits with late goals to claim 2-1 victories last weekend. City trailed Southampton before Sergio Aguero and Kyle Walker turned it around.
Liverpool cut it even finer. It trailed Aston Villa until the 87th minute before goals from Andy Robertson and Sadio Mane clinched a victory which means it has a little more margin for error this weekend.
“What Liverpool have is an incredible quality to fight right until the end,” said Guardiola said ahead of his side’s Champions League clash away to Atalanta on Wednesday – 24 hours after Liverpool beat Genk 2-1 at Anfield.
“Good teams keep going. They wear you down, they have that belief,” said Shearer this week. “It happened to Man United under Alex Ferguson all those years ago, it’s not a coincidence they scored all those late goals.”
Guardiola spiced it up this week with comments claiming Liverpool’s Mane was prone to diving. Klopp retaliated saying City had perfected “tactical fouling.”
The talking will stop on Sunday, however, when England’s finest two sides battle.
“Both teams will try to win the game,” said Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum. “We’re both in good shape. I think they are worried about us, we have players to hurt them. But they have players to hurt us. It’s a game we need to win.”
While talk of two-horse races is merited, City could actually be fourth come kickoff if Leicester beats Arsenal and Chelsea beats Palace on Saturday. Sixth-place Sheffield United is also threatening to gate-crash the European places and travels to a Tottenham
side without a win in four league games.
A Midlands derby provides the appetizer for Sunday’s Anfield feast with Wolverhampton Wanderers hosting Aston Villa while Manchester United takes on Brighton.