EPL: Klopp, Guardiola Renew Rivalry At Anfield

Manchester City are hoping to complete a 10th successive Premier League victory and inflict a third straight home league defeat on champions Liverpool at Anfield.

Pep Guardiola’s Manchester United have been in irresistible form over the past couple of months and look like they’re back to their best, whereas Liverpool’s inconsistencies – three wins, three draws and three defeats in their last nine league matches – have seriously dented their hopes of retaining the title.

A win for City would take them 10 points clear of Liverpool with a game in hand, although it’s 18 years since they last won a match at Anfield.

It’s a match Jurgen Klopp’s side must win, but recent form makes that the least likely outcome. Liverpool have lost their last two home matches against Burnley and Brighton & Hove Albion and have failed to score in their last three at Anfield.

That doesn’t bode well against a City side who, for all the deserved praise they have received for their attacking play, have kept eight clean sheets in that nine-match winning league run.

The only goal they have shipped in that time was a 90th-minute consolation for Chelsea that added a touch of respectability to the score line in their 3-1 home defeat by City last month.

Liverpool will be hoping their excellent home record against City counts for something. They have not lost to them at home since 2003, when Anfield old boys Robbie Fowler and Nicolas Anelka were up front for the visitors and Anelka scored twice in a 2-1 win.

City have another famous former Red in the ranks now in Raheem Sterling and we expect them to extend Liverpool’s miserable home run by winning.

Pep Guardiola has come to accept that City will have to try to win the Premier League without a prolific goalscorer this season.

Sergio Aguero has suffered a number of setbacks in his attempts to return from a knee problem that kept him out of the beginning of the campaign, while Gabriel Jesus has just three league goals to his name after another frustrating season.

The top five goal scorers in the division hail from four of the five teams closest to City: Liverpool, United, Leicester, and Tottenham.

Being without a reliable goalscorer – Ilkay Gundogan tops the charts with seven, two more than any of his teammates – has not hindered the team given they sat three points clear at the top with a game in hand going into the midweek fixtures.

There is also optimism that Aguero can prove decisive when he works his way back to full fitness, with the Argentine needing a few weeks of training well after testing positive for Covid before he will be considered for first team-selection.

However, Guardiola does not expect any of his players to be challenging to be top scorer and accepts that the goals will have to continue to be shared out in the final months of the season.

“Normally when you are on top of the league or winning titles, you have one or two top, top scorers,” he said. “Now we don’t have it and I don’t know if we will have it, because Sergio will be back hopefully soon but the numbers of Gabriel in the Premier League are not much goals.

“What will help to still be there is the way we are going to play. If you dream that the striker is going to solve our problems, we are not going to win the games. Our game, the way we play, the way we defend, we concede few chances, concede no goals. And the way we create through our game, one day – Raz [Sterling], Riyad [Mahrez], Gabriel, Bernardo [Silva], Gundogan, Phil [Foden],and Ferran [Torres] – have the chance to score a goal.

“This is the way we have this season. We don’t have a guy who dribbles through players to score a goal every day. It’s difficult to find one player to score two goals in one game. We don’t have this specific quality. We have to go as a team to play good and this is our target until the end of the season.

The Kops will be looking at Thiago Alcantara to provide some magic at the middle of the park against a rampant. The Spaniard has won nine league titles in the past 10 seasons with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, but a defeat tomorrow will mean adding to that remarkable tally may have to wait until next season at least.

The Spaniard has looked a class act since day one on Merseyside, even if injuries have interrupted his season, and he has also shown that he is capable of looking after himself as well as the ball.

Thiago has picked up two yellow cards in seven Premier League starts this season, and in six of those matches he has given away at least three fouls.

The fast-paced movement of the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Riyad Mahrez and Sterling is expected to make Sunday a busy afternoon for Thiago, and we’re tipping the 29-year-old to pick up another yellow.

Kop Jamie Carragher believes Liverpool’s clash with Manchester City is now a must-win match if they are to have any hope of retaining their Premier League title, but even clawing three points back on might not be enough.

“Liverpool have to be looking at the top four positions, and to say the obvious, take each game as it comes because the form is so down.

“There are so many changes to the team that you are never quite sure what it’s going to be. Alisson was out at the last minute against Brighton and Liverpool are still waiting for players to come back.

“So I think from now, if you were to offer Liverpool a top-four finish they would take that and shake on it. That should be the mindset for Liverpool because that is what they are aiming for at the moment.

“If they could get back into the title race – and, to do that, they would have to beat City on Sunday – you could maybe see where they are with seven or eight games to go. Hopefully from Liverpool’s perspective, City could have some sort of drop.

“The run City are on at the moment is out of this world. It’s impossible to keep that going, City cannot win every single game so I would expect them to drop points at some stage.

“But the problem for Liverpool is that the gap is too big – and it certainly will be if they fail to win at Anfield.”