Barney Ronay on how Aguëro cut down Liverpool
Jamie Jackson's player ratings
Klopp criticises referee over Kompany tackle
That’s all from me. It’s been a thrilling night. Manchester City have gone four points behind Liverpool at the top of the league and the title race is fascinatingly poised. Thanks for reading and emailing. Bye!
Jurgen Klopp speaks! “It was big pressure on the game. Very intense and we were unlucky in our finishing moments. A bit more unlucky than City. That was one of the main differences They had periods where they dominated but we came back and had big chances. We had Mo with a big save from Ederson and Gini from a set-piece. You have to score in those moments. If you think of the goal Aguero scored there is no angle. Nice goal. In a similar situation we didn’t score. But everyone can see why we have the points we have. We made it really difficult. I’ve said to the boys it’s completely okay. We could have drawn, we could have won. We lost but it is not the biggest problem. I really like Vincent Kompany. But how on earth is that not a red card? He is the last man and if he hits Mo more he is out for the season. He knows Mo is that quick so he takes the risk. I don’t know if the ref saw it. I saw it, after the game especially. We carry on. I think we can play better.”
This is the first time in Pep Guardiola’s time at Manchester City that they’ve had less possession than their opponents in the Premier League. Liverpool had 51% possession. AWARD THEM THE POINTS NOW.
Pep Guardiola speaks! “The boxes made the difference. We were outstanding from the first minute. I am happy to reduce our gap against Liverpool and come back to second position. Everything is open. We don’t have a left-back. We have Zinchenko but I didn’t want to put this young guy under pressure against Salah. It was not easy for Laporte. But they fought for everybody. Fernandinho, Sergio, Bernardo. We need Sergio in these games. He has special quality in these positions. He has done it all his career. His finish was incredible. They had the first clear chance. We were unlucky. But after we played real good. We scored two and created more. It is important we showed courage. I apologise for what happened with the fourth official. If we had lost today it was almost done. It would have been so difficult. But we cannot forget we are four points behind them and they are the leaders. But this gives us a lot of confidence. Fernandinho is back. We have played a lot without key players. It is not easy for us. Now rest. Then the FA Cup. Then go game by game.”
It’s still in Liverpool’s hands, so it’s interesting to look at their fixtures. Potential stick games? They have West Ham, Manchester United and Everton away on 4 February, 24 February and 2 March. They also still have to host Tottenham and Chelsea. But they’ll fancy themselves in most of their home games and have away games against five sides in the current bottom half.
One of the most satisfying things for Manchester City tonight is how strong they were without the ball. It’s an underrated part of their game. This was a real grind and they worked so hard out of possession. Liverpool were rarely allowed to develop any flow in attack. Their front three weren’t allowed to click.
Great to see Man City finally maturing past the fancy passing style into a proper last-ditch defence shanked-clearance hoofball team. I predict great success with this new look
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) January 3, 2019
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FOOTBALL BLOODY HELL 😍😍😍
— Benjamin Mendy (@benmendy23) January 3, 2019
John Stones is asked about his part in Ederson’s near calamity in the first half. “I tried to just take everything to be honest,” the Manchester City defender says. “I’ve heard it was quite tight. I’m just happy it didn’t go over the line. It’s one of those things where the keeper’s shouting and the defender wants to clear it. I tried to take him and the ball and it’s come back off him. I just reacted quickly.”
Vincent Kompany speaks! “I’m not even worried about the result. I’m buzzing with a tremendous performance. We went toe to toe with a very aggressive and physical team and matched them. It’s still in Liverpool’s hands. But we are a better team when we play with emotions.”
The defender’s asked about his foul on Mohamed Salah in the first half. “I thought it was a great challenge. Was it not? Oh. I got the ball, a bit of the man. It wasn’t naughty, I didn’t try to injure him.”
Here’s Daniel Taylor’s report from the Etihad Stadium.
Hopefully this is the start of a memorable race to the finishing line. Neutrals won’t want to see Liverpool collapse after their first setback of the season. They shouldn’t kick themselves too much. It was a game of fine margins and Manchester City, who looked very nervy at times, just edged it thanks to those snappy strikes from Sergio Aguero and Leroy Sane. I’m not sure this was elite City this evening. They were very intense and their rigid back four worked well, but they didn’t really spend 90 minutes slicing Liverpool open. In fact Liverpool often looked comfortable in the first half, only to let Aguero in shortly before half-time, and there was nothing to suggest Sane’s winner was on the way after Roberto Firmino’s equaliser. Jurgen Klopp will want to focus on the positives and stress that his team had chances to snatch an equaliser. City, however, will reckon they’re over the hump now.
Liverpool, of course, remain top but Manchester City have cut their lead to four points thanks to Leroy Sane’s winner. Third-placed Tottenham are six points behind.
Blue Moon blares out across the Etihad Stadium. A bewildered Jurgen Klopp walks on to the pitch to console his beaten players. Liverpool can’t believe they’ve lost this one. Manchester City’s fans are savouring every moment. Klopp walks over to applaud the away end. He’s wearing a grim expression. He knows his team were very close to killing off City’s title hopes tonight. Momentum is back with the champions now, though.
Full-time: Manchester City 2-1 Liverpool
The title race is back on! Liverpool’s unbeaten run is over!
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90 min+6: We are past the allotted five minutes. There’s barely any time left.
90 min+5: Ederson’s booked for timewasting at a goal-kick.
90 min+4: Ederson charges from his line to punch a long ball clear. Moments later Aguero tries to catch Alisson off his line from inside his own half! He does not score. He does not get close.
90 min+3: Alexander-Arnold makes to the byline after poor defending from Sane but Danilo cuts out his cross.
90 min+2: Liverpool are camped in City’s half now. Van Dijk has gone forward!
90 min: City waste two chances to seal it! Lovren fails to control Shaqiri’s pass inside his own area and Bernardo Silva nips in. He runs through but Alisson stands tall and makes a fine save from the midfielder’s thumping effort. The rebound comes back to Sterling, who lashes a shot through the bodies and wide of the right post! Five added minutes.
89 min: Bernardo Silva has been booked for a foul on Fabinho.
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88 min: City make their final change. Nicolas Otamendi replaces Vincent Kompany.
Klopp getting into a bit of an exchange with some City fans behind him, and making a mouthing gesture.
— Miguel Delaney (@MiguelDelaney) January 3, 2019
86 min: Daniel Sturridge replaces Gini Wijnaldum. Kyle Walker is on for Aymeric Laporte. This is incredibly tense and dramatic now. City are fretting.
85 min: From the resulting corner, City are all at sea! Ederson flaps and Wijnaldum - I think - almost forces the ball over the line at the far post! Somehow it’s cleared and whipped away from Van Dijk. City survive. Just.
84 min: With City screaming for a foul on Fernandinho by Firmino, Liverpool attack. The ball’s played through for Salah, who has the better of Stones. The Egyptian shoots low from the left, aiming for the far corner, but Ederson pushes it wide! Guardiola goes mad on the touchline. He roars at the fourth official and chucks his scarf on the floor! Anthony Taylor runs over to have a word.
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82 min: City counter, Sterling surging past a tiring Robertson and racing into Liverpool’s half. Sterling slips a pass through to Aguero, who’s in the clear, with only Alisson to beat. He tries to skip to the goalkeeper’s right and looks to have done the hard part. But just when it seems Aguero’s going to roll the ball home and kill Liverpool off, Alisson dives bravely at his feet and concedes a corner!
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81 min: Head tennis in the City area! Alexander-Arnold turns the ball across goal and Kompany heads into the air. Liverpool try to force a chance, but City stand firm.
80 min: Sane breaks down the left, skips inside and finds Sterling, who can’t make up his mind, allowing Robertson to tackle him.
79 min: City haven’t really been tested since restoring their lead. We’re still waiting for the second Liverpool wave.
77 min: Xherdan Shaqiri replaces Sadio Mane.
73 min: Before the goal I was about to suggest that City would be putting De Bruyne on soon. But now it’s Liverpool who are thinking of an attacking change. Xherdan Shaqiri is getting ready.
Raheem Sterling, seemingly played just onside by Lovren, turns on the right and starts a dangerous City attack. He dribbles inside and plays a pass to the left for Sane, who’s been well contained by Alexander-Arnold tonight. Until now. The German doesn’t waste time thinking what to do. Instead he gets the ball out of his feet and whacks a low, diagonal left-footed drive across Alisson, against the inside of the left post and into the back of the net to restore City’s lead!
GOAL! Manchester City 2-1 Liverpool (Sane, 72 min)
I was just about to say that City weren’t threatening.
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67 min: City look slightly shocked. They need to shake that goal out of their system as soon as possible.
65 min: Ilkay Gundogan replaces David Silva, who hasn’t done much tonight.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, such a good crosser of the ball, sets this goal in motion and the final assist comes from Liverpool’s other full-back. Alexander-Arnold cuts back on to his left foot on the right and lifts a deep cross to the far post. Danilo’s in trouble and Andrew Robertson arrives to turn the ball back across goal, giving the unmarked Firmino the easy task of heading in from close range! Advantage Liverpool! They’ve silenced the home fans.
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool (Firmino, 64 min)
Liverpool are level!
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63 min: A free-kick to Liverpool just inside City’s half leads to a scramble in the area. Ederson comes to try and collect Alexander-Arnold’s delivery, but Kompany heads it away. With Ederson stranded, Firmino picks up possession and hammers a shot goalwards. But Kompany’s raced back to clear off the line and City survive!
61 min: Fernandinho is having a wonderful game. That is all.
59 min: Danilo dribbles inside from the right and pings a shot wide from 25 yards. Alisson wasn’t worried.
57 min: Liverpool replace James Milner with Fabinho.
56 min: Robertson finds space on the left and swings a cross into the area. It’s headed away but Alexander-Arnold charges on to the loose ball and lets fly with his right foot. The ball flashes a few yards wide of the left post.
55 min: Liverpool are struggling to do anything right in possession. Which is probably why Fabinho is getting ready to come on soon.
53 min: Fernandinho, who’s having a storming game, whips a shot miles over from 20 yards.
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52 min: Sterling charges at Robertson on the right, drives inside the area and tries to check back inside the Liverpool left-back. Robertson stands firm and Sterling goes down. The City fans scream for a penalty, but they’re pushing it a bit.
51 min: Mane darts down the left after a raking pass from Firmino, but his cross is straight at Ederson. “Do you think Klopp is too loyal to his Captain?” Chris Healy says. “Henderson started all three Champions League away games and Liverpool lost all three. Fabinho was good at Chelsea, great against United and Shaqiri is much more a front foot player. I just don’t think Henderson’s performances justify his inclusion in the big games and there are better options sitting on the bench.”
50 min: Anthony Taylor does a passable imitation of Dejan Lovren by slipping inside Liverpool’s area. I’m here all week.
48 min: City are in control at the start of the second half. They’re dominating possession.
46 min: Manchester City get the second half underway. There have been no substitutions.
Another look at that Kompany tackle on Salah: the defender was off the ground and out of control. It could easily have been a red.
Half-time emails
“Amazingly, I’m feeling pretty serene about this,” Matt Dony says. “I mean, Liverpool almost certainly won’t go through the whole season unbeaten, so I can’t stress too much over being behind. And it seems hard to believe that Liverpool won’t score at least one goal. This is an unfamiliar feeling. I’m used to simple despair after bad results, and a fear that things will soon go wrong after good results, with very little in between. A semi-confident acceptance, with the sure knowledge that there will be good results in the rest of the season, is alien, uncertain territory. I don’t like it.”
“I feel like through the years I’ve seen Agüero score this type of goal many times,” Kari Tulinius says. “He receives the ball in traffic, without an inch of space, yet somehow manages to get off a powerful shot into the top corner. Is there a striker playing today who’s better at scoring from tight angles than Agüero?”
Half-time: Manchester City 1-0 Liverpool
It’s been frenetic and absorbing and City have a crucial lead thanks to a poacher’s goal from the magnificent Sergio Aguero. Liverpool will feel aggrieved to be behind, though. They’ll argue that Vincent Kompany should be off and they’ll also reflect on that ridiculous early scramble in City’s area. It’s all to play for in the second half. See you in 15 minutes. I’m off to get some cherries.
45 min+1: Laporte picks up a booking for clumping Milner. Two of City’s back four are on yellows now.
45 min: There will be two added minutes.
44 min: The home fans are taunting Liverpool’s away support with that Allez! Allez! Allez! song.
43 min: There’s been no response from Liverpool yet. City fancy a second before half-time.
Liverpool suddenly look vulnerable down the left. Sane bursts behind Alexander-Arnold and although the angle’s tight, his cross-shot forces Alisson to claw the ball clear. Sterling fastens on to the rebound but runs out of room. City keep pressing, though. Another cross comes into the box and Aguero goes down under a challenge from Van Dijk. Nothing doing. Still City press. Bernardo Silva picks up possession and runs down the left. He reaches the byline and digs a ball into the six-yard box. Aguero nips in front of the dozing Lovren and smashes an unstoppable shot past a stunned Alisson with his left foot to give City the lead with their first worthwhile attempt!
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GOAL! Manchester City 1-0 Liverpool (Aguero, 40 min)
City’s main man does it again!
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40 min: There’s plenty of chatter that Kompany deserved a red for that tackle on Salah. I remember him being sent off for a similar one against Manchester United in 2012. maybe the fact we’re talking about it so much is because nothing’s happening. But...
38 min: Wijnaldum pulls back Sane and receives a booking.
37 min: Looking at that earlier goalline clearance from Stones, he somehow managed to nutmeg the advancing Salah. It’s absurd Liverpool aren’t ahead.
33 min: Sane scoots behind Lovren on the right and pulls the ball back into the area. Van Dijk boots it behind for a corner, from which nothing occurs.
31 min: Under no pressure just inside City’s half Stones overhits a simple pass to Kompany. Salah nips in to try to win the ball, forcing Kompany to go to ground to stop the Egyptian racing clear. However the City defender’s tackle lacks control and he sends Salah flying. Kompany looks astonished to receive a yellow card, but he can’t really have any complaints after jumping into the challenge.
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28 min: A long ball down the right from Fernandinho sends Sterling tearing away down the right. He has the legs on Robertson and he’s able to cut back and pull the ball back to David Silva. This is the clearest opening so far for City. But Silva fails to sort his feet out properly and it’s easy for the immovable Van Dijk to block his weak prod.
24 min: Aguero swivels a pass through to David Silva on the left, but Van Dijk sticks out a leg to clear the Spaniard’s cutback in the six-yard box. Liverpool are defending very well. City haven’t had a shot yet.
21 min: The goalline technology system shows the ball was 0.00000000000000001mm from going over the line before Stones cleared it. No goal, then, but City have had their warning and Liverpool know they can get at them now.
20 min: Having enjoyed that escape, City look to respond in kind. Aguero spins Lovren, who brings him down heavily. It’s a booking for the Liverpool centre-back.
18 min: Liverpool mount an attack that starts from the edge of their own area. It’s a splendid move and it picks up dangerous moment when Salah turns in the middle of City’s half, combines with with Fimrino and makes towards the area. This is so slick and City are in real trouble when Salah slips a clever pass through to Mane. He’s through on goal and the stadium goes silent! He’s there before Ederson and slips a low shot towards the right corner. Is it going in? No! The ball hits the base of the post and rebounds out. Stones tries to hack it clear from near his own goal but strikes his clearance straight against the prone Ederson! The ball bounces back towards goal and with Salah closing in, Stones scoops clear before the ball crosses the line! What an incredible sequence!
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15 min: Liverpool are keeping City away from Alisson at the moment. In fact, we haven’t seen much from City’s creative players yet. The two Silvas are yet to affect the game and Liverpool are starting to fancy themselves going forward, though their latest attack ends when Fernandinho pinches Salah’s pocket in the area.
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12 min: Sterling tries to beat Robertson on the right. The Liverpool fans enjoy seeing their left-back win this duel. It’s a big night for Sterling, who never seems to play well against his old side.
11 min: The game has started to simmer down a little. “I think Pep’s team can’t, in Zidane’s words, “suffer” and win,” Joseph Lam says. “Zidane’s side always seem to be able to crank out wins having been on the ropes for much of the game -- it’s a quality that Pep’s Barca, Bayern and City all seem to lack. And to address Paul Fitzgerald, Pep’s side have had their fair share of bad luck, but there was nothing unlucky about that 2014 Madrid tie. They were absolutely eviscerated in Munich.”
9 min: Now Liverpool attack, with Robertson’s ball from the left finding Mane in City’s half. This is better from the leaders. Mane spreads it out to Alexander-Arnold on the right and the youngster’s cross hits a City defender and bounces through to Ederson.
7 min: City have started with furious intensity. They’re flying into the midfield challenges. This is going to be a huge test of Liverpool’s nerve.
5 min: Fernandinho barrels forward, takes a heavy touch, gets clipped by Henderson and charges straight into Robertson, who stays down. City continue to attack until Anthony Taylor stops play to let Robertson get some treatment.
4 min: Every Liverpool touch is being booed. Every Liverpool mistake is being jeered. The City fans are up for this and Liverpool are causing a few problems for themselves.
3 min: With his back to goal on the left, Aguero turns and brilliantly wriggles clear of a couple of Liverpool defenders. However his cross towards Sterling drifts out of play. Soon City are heading down the left, Sane occupying two defenders. The German makes space and drives towards the byline before firing a low ball into the middle, but it’s too close to Alisson.
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2 min: There was some speculation that City would be playing with a back three, but Laporte is at left-back. How conventional from Guardiola. Liverpool, meanwhile, look a little nervous early on. Alisson, normally so cool with the ball at his feet, shanks a clearance straight out for a throw, much to the amusement of the City fans. Liverpool need to be careful here.
Peep! Liverpool, all in red, get the game underway. The home fans, looking to create an intimidating atmosphere, are whistling and jeering their every touch. Liverpool, licking from right to left in the first half, immediately give the ball away. Start as you mean to go on, lads.
Here come the teams! We’ll have football soon! When was the last Premier League game as significant as this one? “I suspect that ‘perfect or nothing at all’ is part of Barcelona’s, and hence Guardiola’s, DNA,” Philip Podolsky says. “They only ever won the Champions League in the seasons they’ve swept La Liga as well: Madrid’s record is almost the polar opposite.”
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Jurgen Klopp speaks! “I don’t think anyone can come here and expect three points. You need to be ready to suffer. All the effort you put in doesn’t mean you’ll win. What makes is dangerous for them is you have to play football. Put them under pressure. It will be a tough game. Play as good as you can, run as much you can, close the gaps, play football in the best way. Create organised chaos in their defence. It is difficult. If you play 95 minutes against City you are not 80 minutes in front of their goal. You have to calm down a little bit and let them run. The boys know what to do. They have to do it in the right moment and we will be fine.”
Pep Guardiola speaks! “We will try to attack and defend well. It is not just enough to attack or just to defend. We know each other well. I think the plan is good. In the box it makes the difference. The boxes make the difference. When you are precise the rest is easy.”
Pre-match emails
“I think there’s something in that idea of perfection suddenly having to stretch itself,” Paul Fitzgerald says. “But I also think luck played a part. I remember the 2nd Leg of the Inter game and they were quite unlucky ( people forget that Bojan scored and was wrongly adjudged to be offside). And his Bayern still dominated against madrid even though the system wasn’t quite right. But tonight is big.”
“Interesting starting lineups,” Peter Oh says. “Guardiola may regret ignoring the cautionary proverb people who walk through glass tunnels shouldn’t throw on Stones.”
“Is the reason that Pep’s teams seem to struggle when under pressure simply that they’re a bit like a jet engine - they either work perfectly or not at all? “ David Hopkins says.
Manchester City make two changes after beating Southampton. John Stones replaces Oleksandr Zinchenko, meaning that Aymeric Laporte moves to left-back, and Leroy Sane is in for Riyad Mahrez. Kevin de Bruyne starts on the bench. Mohamed Salah might fancy his chances against Laporte.
Liverpool make two changes after thrashing Arsenal. Jordan Henderson replaces Fabinho and Jurgen Klopp stiffens his midfield by starting James Milner instead of Xherdan Shaqiri.
Team news
Manchester City: Ederson, Danilo, Stones, Kompany, Laporte; Fernandinho; Sterling, Silva, Bernardo, Sane; Aguero. Subs: Muric, Walker, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Otamendi, Jesus.
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson, Milner, Wijnaldum; Salah, Firmino, Mane. Subs: Mignolet, Moreno, Fabinho, Keita, Shaqiri, Lallana, Sturridge.
Referee: Anthony Taylor.
“While this is a mouth-wateringly ‘big’ game and the timing of it, following City’s recent falterings, is perfect, I see it as far from decisive,” Dean Kinsella says. “Liverpool are fab to watch and have good midfield options, but I cannot see their cavalier approach lasting the whole season. Stumbling a little only seems a Van Dijk or Alison injury away.”
I don’t think Liverpool have been cavalier. Obviously an injury to Van Dijk or Alisson would hurt them badly, but they’ve only conceded eight goals.
For all the doubts over Manchester City, Jurgen Klopp still thinks they’re the best around. Let the mind games begin!
Further to that, of course, is the way that Manchester City have struggled in recent weeks. They’ve had injuries to important players, particularly Fernandinho, but those were still avoidable defeats against Crystal Palace and Leicester. This is a big mental test now for Guardiola’s side. Down the years Guardiola hasn’t really had a comeback title win. The question many people are asking now is whether City are capable of chasing Liverpool. That remains to be seen given that they were under such little pressure at the top last season. You sense they could start to drift if they lose tonight - that it could become a little like the 16-17 season. That said, I make City title favourites if they hand Liverpool their first league defeat.
I’d like to talk more about the idea that Pep Guardiola’s sides don’t cope well under pressure. I definitely think there’s something in it. When they’re on top his teams can look utterly untouchable – think Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, Bayern in the Bundesliga, City last season. The football is so perfect, the kill so beautiful, that resistance can seem futile. But how do they respond when things go wrong? In the 2011-12 season Barcelona didn’t deal well with chasing Real Madrid and they made an enormous mess of their Champions League semi-final against Chelsea, a tie they shouldn’t have lost for so many reasons.
Then, at Bayern, domestic dominance seemed to hurt them at the business end in Europe. They never even made it to a final; they panicked against Madrid in 2014 (Guardiola still kicks himself over that second leg), fell apart against Barcelona and Leo Messi in 2015 and failed to combat Atletico Madrid’s counterattacks in 2016. The tie against Barca feels particularly instructive. Messi scored the opener quite late on and a 1-0 away defeat in the first leg probably would have been a good result for Bayern. Instead they were out of it after conceding twice more.
It seems to be a trend and a weakness that Guardiola’s teams concede in bursts in difficult moments. It happened twice at Anfield last season, domestically and in the Champions League, and it’s not easy to figure out the cause. Is it down to his managerial style? That they tend to be so dominant of the ball that they aren’t really geared to defend and don’t know how to react when things go wrong? Is it, as Zlatan Ibrahimovic alleged, that Guardiola likes obedient players who follow his instructions? If that’s the case, are his teams capable of thinking on their foot on the pitch? You might say not given how they faltered against Lyon when Guardiola was serving a touchline ban earlier this season.
Maybe I’m reading too much into all this. We are, after all, not dealing with a huge sample size. But I’m interested to know what you think.
While we wait for teams, here’s Barney Ronay’s match preview.
Preamble
Hello. Go back to the start of this decade and the manager who really gave Pep Guardiola the heebie-jeebies was Jose Mourinho. It was Mourinho’s Internazionale side who denied Guardiola’s Barcelona another Champions League title with a resolute counterattacking performance in 2010; it was Mourinho’s Real Madrid who took the La Liga title off Guardiola’s Barcelona in 2012. Fast forward to 2016 and some pundits reckoned that Mourinho’s arrival in Manchester at the same time as the Catalan was going to be the Premier League’s defining rivalry. Not quite, of course. Time moves on and a new nemesis has emerged to keep Guardiola up at night. His name, as you well know, is Jurgen Klopp.
It’s become obvious that nobody troubles Guardiola more than Liverpool’s manager, who has a 7-5 winning record over his Manchester City counterpart after their spells in England and Germany. There’s been less heavy metal football from Klopp this season, but that hasn’t hurt Liverpool’s assault on the Premier League title. They head to the Etihad Stadium with a seven-point lead over the champions and it could be another damp squib of a title race if they stretch their advantage further this evening. Liverpool, who remain unbeaten after 20 games, have a chance to make one hell of a statement. Few people envisaged such a scenario developing at the start of the season, but it’s clear that Klopp isn’t overawed by taking on Guardiola. They meet on a level playing field and instead of hanging on to City’s coattails, it’s Liverpool who are threatening to sprint into the distance.
This one is fascinatingly poised. In November all the talk was of City going another season unbeaten or breaking the 100-point barrier. When Liverpool grabbed that bizarre last-minute winner in the Merseyside derby at the start of December, it almost felt like the race had been prolonged for another week or two. Yet the picture has changed in the past month. One theory is that City are so geared towards achieving footballing perfection that they don’t know how to react when their supremacy is challenged. They’ve stuttered since losing to Chelsea, giving Liverpool a leg-up after defeats to Crystal Palace and Leicester City over the festive period. They’ve started making sloppy mistakes and have looked mentally uncertain during their moment of self-doubt. Perhaps it’s a flaw in Guardiola’s approach; his teams have always been liable to self-implode when challenged. It could be a personality glitch. Bald fraud.
Either way, the question now is whether City are capable of playing catch-up. That’s hard to call. None of Guardiola’s titles have been won from losing positions, whether with Barca, Bayern or City; they’ve mostly tended to race out in front early on and cruise from there. Mind you, it does feel slightly weird to say that all the pressure’s on City. Liverpool, after all, are looking to scratch the most irritating of itches and satisfy their yearning for a first league title since 1990. There’s still so much football to play, but it must already feel tantalisingly close. It remains to be seen how they’ll cope with the weight of history on their shoulders, especially if their lead is cut to four points tonight.
For now, though, the vibe is different to the 2013-14 season. At the moment it’s hard to see Liverpool slipping and giving the ball to a Demba Ba type. They feel mature and controlled. While they’re a devastating attacking force with Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane up front, they’ve also developed a knack for grinding out results. With Alisson Becker in goal and Virgil Van Dijk at the back, they’ve only let in four goals. They’ll fancy their chances against City. They can open up a nine-point lead over Spurs again.
Then again they know the size of the task facing them here. According to Klopp, City are still the best team in the world. “It is one of the most difficult games you can play in the modern football world, away at City,” he says. And you can see his point. When they are at their best, there’s nothing quite like a Guardiola side in full flow. They’re far too good to be written off yet. For Guardiola, though, the challenge is to get his players thinking clearly again. Immaculate focus is required against a team Liverpool’s focus – on the pitch and on the touchline.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
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