I’m ready to call it – City will pip the Reds!
The Premier League title race has swung back and forth between Liverpool and Manchester City all season.
But I’ve seen enough now. I’m ready to call it – I fancy City.
Liverpool have earned loads of plaudits since August for the way they got themselves to the top of the league.
Rightly so.they’ve been terrific most weeks. But they’re feeling the pressure now. There’s no doubt about that as far as I’m concerned.
That’s just what happens when it has been so long since you’ve won a title.
And when the Reds look at City – and see a better team, player for player – it must be impossible to keep cool.
Now, let’s not go over the score here.
Pep Guardiola’s side aren’t miles ahead of Jurgen Klopp’s.
The first half of the season more than proves that.
But man-for-man, I think they are a wee bit better.
To me, City have been woven together with the very finest thread by Pep Guardiola with the very finest thread by their manager.
In terms of the mental side of the title race, I reckon Liverpool are a wee bit rougher.
That said, they would have coped easily with the talk from Everton fans wanting their team to lose to City in midweek, so the Reds fell off the top of the league.
That’s easy for the Toffees’ punters to say, but I’m not buying that they meant it.
The blue half of Merseyside has lived with Liverpool being the superior team in the city for years.
They’re used to it.
So I reckon saying they wanted to lose was just a way of getting their excuses in early, ahead of a game they knew their side wasn’t good enough to win.
Everton have spent – or mis-spent, as the case may be – fortunes over the last few years. It simply isn’t working.
Multiple managers have tried to make a go of it at Goodison, and they have all failed.
But if their fans are reduced to wanting their side to lose just so Liverpool suffer, they have fallen further than I thought.
Let’s say I was in their shoes, as a Celtic fan, and Rangers and Aberdeen were battling for the Premiership title.
Imagine a Celtic loss to the Dons would do Rangers out of the title. Could I will on Aberdeen to beat my team?
Not a chance. It would be: “Come on you Bhoys in green”, all the way from me.
Fortunately, that’s not a scenario that’s going to happen anytime soon.
And, for all their fans’ talk, Everton aren’t likely to have any impact on the destination of the Premier League title, either.