Liverpool vs City: Who are the Favourites for the Title?

On Sunday Premier League champions Liverpool take on Manchester City, with the Citizens looking to get their first win at Anfield since May 2003, where a stoppage-time winner by Nicolas Anelka won all three points for Kevin Keegan’s side that year.

This is a fixture that has built up a tremendous rivalry that was reignited in the 2013/14 season, when City beat Liverpool to the Premier League title, courtesy of Steven Gerrard’s famous slip against Chelsea.

After this, City and Liverpool have clashed on several different occasions, in both the league and various cup competitions, as City won the League Cup Final against Liverpool in 2016 on penalties, following a 1-1 draw after extra time, however, Liverpool did win a two-legged tie between the two in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals in 2017/18 5-1 on aggregate, which came as a shock due to City comfortably winning the league with 100 points, a new Premier League record.

The 2018/19 season further intensified the rivalry between the two, as City beat a much-improved Liverpool side to the league title by a single point, finishing the campaign on 98 points, which prolonged the Anfield club’s wait for a league title to 30 years, with Jurgen Klopp’s side winning their first Premier League title last season by a staggering 18-point margin ahead of City, finishing on 99 points.

Klopp’s side have been unfortunate with the injuries that they have suffered, as the majority of them have came in the same position at the heart of their defence, as Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip are all expected to be ruled out for the rest of the season; hence why they made moves for Preston North End’s Ben Davies and Schalke 04’s Ozan Kabak in the final few hours of deadline day in the January transfer window.

Kabak is expected to feature on a more regular basis for Liverpool than Davies, as he has more first-team exposure at a higher level than the former Preston centre-back, having regularly featured for the likes of Schalke and Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. The Turkish international’s signature will allow Liverpool to play with more balance, as the likes of Jordan Henderson will be allowed to move back into their midfield on a regular basis to play alongside the likes of Thiago Alcantara and Gini Wijnaldum, having filled in next to Fabinho at centre-back on a number of occasions.

At present Manchester City are the favourites for the Premier League title at 1/4, whilst despite being behind Manchester United in third place, Liverpool are the second-favourites at 9/2, as they are currently four points behind the Citizens who have a game in hand on them.

City come into this game in impressive form and are currently on a club-record winning run of 12 matches in a row and with Liverpool’s defensive issues, as well as the fact that there will be no crowd at Anfield for the game, Pep Guardiola’s side have arguably their best chance yet to end their drought away at Liverpool, which will stretch to 18 years if they fail to do so this season.

The form of Ruben Dias could be vital for City if they are to pick up all three points, as in the 18 Premier League games he has played, City have conceded just seven times. The former Benfica man made his league debut against Leeds United at Elland Road in early October, and the Portuguese defender has been compared to the likes of van Dijk, and his manager Guardiola has recently hailed the 23-year-old as being “undroppable”. At present City have the best defence in the league, conceding just 13 times in 20 matches, keeping 12 clean sheets in the process.

A win at Anfield would see City’s odds of 1/4 to win the title further slashed with Liverpool’s increasing, as they could move seven points clear of Klopp’s side having played a game fewer, which would most likely see Manchester United as the most obvious threat to their bid to win the title for the third time in four years, and with the Red Devils not winning the league since the 2012/13 season, City would have the advantage of having more title race experience than the Reds, as well as the fact that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side will have to travel to the Etihad in early March needing to win the game to stay in contention.

If Liverpool can keep up their impressive record against City at Anfield and can find the form that they displayed before their poor run of results around the back end of the festive period till mid-January, where they failed to score against the likes of Newcastle, Southampton, United and Burnley, then they could prove that it was merely a rare blip away from the elite levels of consistency that they showed in the previous two seasons and potentially play themselves back into contention for the league title.

If the likes of Kabak has a quick start at Anfield and performs to the potential that is expected of him, and with the likes of Diogo Jota being lined up for a return to first-team action later on this month, then it would be hard to rule out Liverpool as title contenders if they close the gap to City on Sunday evening. Whoever wins this match at Anfield, will most likely go on to win the Premier League.