Kyle Walker has admitted Liverpool have caused Manchester City 'problems' in recent years.
The Reds take on Watford in Saturday's early kick-off where a win moves them two points clear at the top of the table with City playing hours later against Burnley.
While both teams are expected to pick up all three points making Liverpool's stay at the top a short one, the psychology behind it makes for an interesting game for both albeit for different reasons.
Reigning title holders City technically hold the advantage being one point clear at the top and though Walker acknowledges how special this Liverpool side are having chased down a 14-point gap from January, the England defender warned Jurgen Klopp's side that his team are in the driving seat when it comes to winning the Premier League.
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"It's what you want to be involved in," Walker replied when asked on BBC Radio 5 Live what it's like being in such a close title race. "Obviously. Liverpool are a great team and we have to be on our A game for this because they've caused us some problems in the recent years but I think we've been here before. It's better to be where we are at the top then obviously where they are in second but anything can change in football, especially the Premier League. It's a crazy, crazy game."
The two sides meet next week after a tough UEFA Champions League quarter-final fixture, Liverpool travel to Benfica on Tuesday while City welcome Atletico Madrid to the Etihad Stadium on the same night. Five days later, Liverpool travel to Manchester on Sunday afternoon to face City which could ultimately decide where the Premier League title ends up at the end of the season.
Liverpool have been on a relentless winning run and Walker has told his teammates that they have to exploit the limited weaknesses this Reds side have and that City may have to rely on individual brilliance to win the game if they are not at their best, using their 2-1 win over Arsenal in January as an example of them nicking three points when they didn't deserve it.
"I think in every team, they've got the strength and weaknesses and we need to exploit that but I think in them certain games, when everything is riding on it or how big the game is actually going to be, sometimes you need a little bit of individual brilliance from certain people or certain individuals.
"And you might need a little bit of luck, that's just the way football goes. You can't always, you know, play well and go and win football games, it don't happen like that. I recall back to the Arsenal game which the manager touches on quite a few times that we didn't probably deserve to go in and win that game. That's what title winning teams do, they grind out results and go and get the points that are needed on the day."
Due to a number of games in hand, Liverpool found themselves 14 points behind league-leaders City at the start of the year which led to many believing the title race was as good as over. But since the 2-2 draw against Chelsea at the start of 2022, the Reds have won nine games on the spin to get themselves back in the title race and apply some pressure to City.
Walker and his team-mates were in a similar situation a few seasons ago, when they had to come from behind to pip the Merseyside outfit to the title.
"Yeah, I feel it was a couple of seasons ago now where we had to go and win every game to pip them to the title. Obviously Vinny [Vincent Kompany] went and scored that goal against Leicester - we don't know how he's done it by the way - but he's put it in the back of the net and we went on the run that we did.
"Listen, as you said, I don't think that we've done that much wrong to concede as many points as we have done. Liverpool have just been exceptional and they've done very well. Obviously they have the games in hand which you need to take into consideration where if they won their games the points obviously dropped a little bit but give credit where credit's due and I think they've done very well but now obviously the international break came at the right time.
"We can regroup. First and foremost it's a very important game against Burnley tomorrow. And then from there we'll start knocking down the doors with the back to back, as Thiago said from Liverpool, World Cup and European games."
