A Super Sunday special this weekend as the two best teams in England meet for the first time this season. Liverpool have the chance to return to the top of the league, ahead of Southampton, whilst Manchester City have the chance to close the gap on their rivals. Should City win the game, they will go just 2 points behind the Reds with a game in hand; if Liverpool win, the gap to the Citizens will increase to 8 points.
The last time these 2 met at the Etihad, City demolished the champions 4 nil, however they had already won the title by this point and so were most definitely not at full throttle. Liverpool’s last win here came in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals as they won 2-1 and in general, results in the past decade have been very even between the two sides.
The home side are on a green patch of form after surpassing Marseille, Sheffield United and Olympiacos comfortably in their last 3 games. Ferran Torres has taken to his new forward role like a duck to water, despite the fact many thought he was going to be a winger and is now scoring for fun. Pep has made additions to the defensive part of his side with the impressive Portuguese youngster Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake, who provides versatility across the back line. There have been improvements, shown by 3 consecutive clean sheets and so they will be going into this game full of belief.
Liverpool will still be missing Vigil Van Dijk for what looks like the remainder of the season with Thiago out injured as well. However, results have not stuttered since and they have had 5 consecutive wins in all competitions and new signing, Diogo Jota, has set the world alight scoring goal after goal. Joe Gomez and Fabinho at the back has worked well so far, despite many suggesting the Liverpool defence would collapse.
Facts
· Man City are averaging 1.5 goals a game whilst Liverpool are averaging 2.4 goals a game
· Man City are conceding 1.3 goals per game on average, compared to Liverpool’s 2.1 each game
· Liverpool have only lost 4 games in their last 38 matches
· Liverpool have scored at least 2 goals in their last 9 matches
· Man City have kept 7 clean sheets in their last 9 home games
· Man City have won 8 of their last 9 home games
When the season finishes in May, this affair will surely be looked back on whatever the result as a determining factor towards who wins the league. This tie has in the past become a feisty match and I would not be surprised if there a plenty of yellow cards and even a red or two. It is highly likely this game will be goals galore.
Our Prediction
we think that whilst there will be many goals in this game, it will be a tight result, a 4-3 or a 3-2. We think this will be in favour of Manchester City, with advanced attacking players like Raheem Sterling, Ferran Torres, Gabriel Jesus, De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez, Liverpool’s makeshift defences will struggle to cope. This does not mean I don’t think Liverpool won’t cause problems themselves and with Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and the flying Diogo Jota they will score on the day, no doubt about it.
Were going to go for Man City 3-2 Liverpool.
Bet Builder 1 – Safer – Odds = 2.05
Both Teams to Score a goal Over 2.5 Goals Over 1.5 Cards Under 14 Corners
Bet Builder 1 – Riskier – Odds = 11.00
Over 3.5 goals in the Match for Both Teams Combined Over 0.5 First Half Goal Over 7.5 Corners in the Match for Both Teams Combined Over 2.5 Cards in the match A Red Card in the Match
All stats and predictions made using stats from www.xbetedge.com platform. Sign up to use data to create create your own winning selections using probabilities.
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