STAR PREVIEW Sun: Manchester City v Liverpool

Premier League fixtures don’t get much bigger than this. Manchester City take on Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon in a match that could go a long way to deciding this season’s breathtaking title race.

At one point in the season, Pep Guardiola’s side thought they had the title all wrapped up but – with just eight games to go in the season – Manchester City now find themselves only one point ahead of rivals Liverpool.

There has been a lot of mutual respect between the two managers this week with Jurgen Klopp labelling Guardiola ‘the best coach in the world’ and the Spainaird responding by saying that his German counterpart ‘makes world football a better place to live’. A far cry from the kind of war words that we’ve seen between rival Premier League managers in the past.

You can expect all that to go out of the window at kick-off on Sunday, however, with both managers fully aware of the magnitude of this match.

City come into this one in decent form. They won their midweek Champions League fixture over Atletico Madrid but, as you’d expect, were made to work hard for it by Diego Simeone’s side. Kevin De Bruyne’s 70th-minute strike was enough to give the Cityzens a slender 1-0 lead going into the second-leg.

They will have a key player missing, though, with defender Ruben Dias – who has been a rock at the back of City’s defence this season – highly unlikely to feature through a hamstring injury.

Manchester City v Liverpool
Premier League
16:30 Sky Sports Main Event / Sky Sports Premier League / Sky Sports Ultra HD

HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD
(Maximum 10 matches)
OCT 2021 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 2-2 Manchester City
FEB 2021 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 1-4 Manchester City
NOV 2020 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool
JUL 2020 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 4-0 Liverpool
NOV 2019 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 3-1 Manchester City
AUG 2019 COMMUNITY SHIELD Liverpool 1-1 Manchester City
JAN 2019 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 2-1 Liverpool
OCT 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 0-0 Manchester City
APR 2018 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Manchester City 1-2 Liverpool
APR 2018 CHAMPIONS LEAGUE Liverpool 3-0 Manchester City

Liverpool have produced a stunning run of form to bring themselves back into contention for the Premier League title and will now be looking to take this golden chance to put the race into their hands on Sunday afternoon.

The Reds were comfortable in victory in the Champions League in midweek, cruising to a 3-1 away win against Benfica thanks to goals from Ibrahima Konate, Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz.

Klopp’s men struggled defensively last season, but have managed to tighten up massively defensively this year and will be looking for their fifth consecutive Premier League clean-sheet on Sunday.

There are no fresh injury concerns for Klopp to deal with and Trent Alexander-Arnold appears to have recovered from the knock that ruled him out of England duty in the recent international break.

This is a tight one to call and – as is usually the case in high-pressure matches with high stakes – I am expecting this one to be nervy and cagey. A draw looks appealing at 13/5 so that’s what we’re backing along with a correct score-line of 1-1.

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RECOMMENDED BETS
BACK Draw 2pts at 13/5 (Latest Star Price ? CLICK TO BET NOW)
BACK 1-1 Draw 1pt at 6/1 (Latest Star Price ? CLICK TO BET NOW)

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PROFIT/LOSS (APRIL 2022): LOSS -6.05 points
(Excluding ante-post recommendations CLICK HERE)

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