Too close o call
> … but Klopp expects a different Liverpool for showdown with Man City
VINCENT KOMPANY feels there is little to choose between Manchester City and Liverpool as they prepare for this weekend’s top-of-the-table clash.
City and Liverpool, last season’s Premier League champions and beaten Champions League finalists respectively, have lived up to their billing as title favourites in the opening months of the current campaign.
City head to Anfield on Sunday as the leaders on goal difference from the Reds, with both sides still unbeaten.
City captain Kompany said: “In these kind of games you need a lot of things to come together – you need a little bit of luck, a good performance, you need to be clinical and defend well, and that goes for both teams.
“But it’s too close, I think, to actually make any big statements. That’s what makes this game so interesting.”
City thrashed Liverpool 5-0 early last season but the Merseysiders turned the tables in their next meeting to win 4-3 after scoring three times in a remarkable nineminute spell at Anfield.
Liverpool then won both meetings between the clubs when they met again in the Champions League quarterfinals.
Kompany said: “I think if you take all four games of last season, including the home game, it’s a game of small margins.
“You look at each and every game and there’s not a lot of difference in terms of how the games happened.
“One game we were more efficient and scored five, the other game they scored three in, what, 15 minutes? And that’s how these games seem to go.
“The margin is so small between both teams and a lot of things happen in a very short period of time.”
Meanwhile Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp vows a different Liverpool side will show up on Sunday.
After opening the season with seven straight wins, Liverpool have stumbled through three winless performances over the past 10 days.
Their latest setback came yesterday with a 1-0 Champions League loss at Napoli in which they conceded in the 90th minute and failed to CARDIFF CITY FC travel to Wembley to face Tottenham Hotspur tomorrow, looking to get some more valuable points on the board ahead of the upcoming international break.
And Callum Paterson, who featured during the Bluebirds’ slender defeat to Burnley last Sunday, feels that despite not taking the points in that game, spirits remain high going into the month of October.
“We had our chances against Burnley – but we need to learn to take them in the future,” says Paterson.
“You have to be positive in every game you go into. People have got a lot of quality in their teams and they’ve spent a lot of money, but you’ve got to be positive and hopefully we can start to win these games.
“I was happy to get back on the park last weekend and get some game time. I hope to keep my place in the team for this week’s game at Spurs and get more chances in front of goal,” he added.
“Our heads aren’t down – we’re fighting. We’ve always been a positive team. We went through our ups and downs last season too. register a shot on target.
“We have three days to recover and then we have Man City. It would have been difficult at any time in the season, it is never easy against them,” Klopp said after the loss in Italy.
“On Sunday we will have our crowd in the back. You could see tonight, Napoli used the atmosphere and we couldn’t calm it down with our performance. But on Sunday that – at least – will be 100% different.”
Third-placed Chelsea can move closer to at least one of the teams in front of them when they visit Southampton, while Tottenham host winless Cardiff City and Arsenal go for a sixth straight League win at
Fulham.
Manchester United, the final member of the League’s so-called “Big Six,” look to their season back on track when they host winless Newcastle United.
Sitting 10th in the table on 10 points from seven games, United have made their worst start to a campaign since 1992.
Jose Mourinho’s men lost at West Ham in the League last weekend and were then booed off after a 0-0 home draw with Valencia in the Champions League on Tuesday.
Luke Shaw promises they’ll do everything they can to set things right with the Old Trafford faithful.
“The last few games haven’t been good enough. We need to win on Saturday and we have to win and we have to do it for ourselves, for the team, for the staff and most importantly for the fans,” he said.
“They’ve had a hard couple of weeks, I’m sure, and we have too, as players. We’ll do our best to make it right on the weekend.”
Brighton host West Ham, bottom side Huddersfield seek their first win at Burnley, Wolverhampton visit Crystal Palace, Leicester face Everton and Bournemouth travel to Watford in the weekend’s other games. – dpa/Agencies
“I think everyone needs to work harder now. We’ve not started great, we know that, but we’re looking to learn and improve.”
In a game where only a man of the match-winning performance by former England goalkeeper Joe Hart stopped the home team from taking the game from the visiting Clarets, Paterson went on to compliment the performance of the City attack, in particular that of rising star Josh Murphy, who was instrumental in the Bluebirds’ dangerous and aggressive attacking style of play.
The winger scored his first competitive goal for Cardiff City in the match, equalising with a beautifully taken strike on the first touch.
“Josh is great, he’s developing well,” added Callum.
“He did well in pre-season and has done well with the opportunities he has had this season. Josh got his goal on Sunday, which was a great finish, and he had another couple of opportunities. He’s been good for us so far and hopefully he can build on that.”