League leaders Manchester City travel to Anfied to face a Liverpool side who are beginning to find their feet in the English Premier league.
Last week, Liverpool inflicted a fourth league defeat of the season on Chelsea, when they stunned the ‘Blues’ 2-1 at the Stamford Bridge. The win catapulted Liverpool to sixth place, but left them 12 points adrift of league leaders Man City. Liverpool have a decent record against Man City; they were the last team to score more than two goals against Man City in their 3-0 demolition of city last season. Man City, on the other hand, has a poor record at Anfield in their last eight visits. They have lost six, drawn two and won just one out of their last 12 Premier League games against the Merseysiders.
Last Wednesday, Man City fell 2-1 to Napoli in the Champions League and their qualification to the knock-out stages currently hangs in the balance. They need to win their last game at home to Bayern Munich and hope Napoli do not grab a victory at Villarreal who have only got pride to play for, as they are already out of the Champions League.
Man City have become the Premier League’s newest pace-setters, having won 11 of their 12 league games, losing none and drawing just one! They have scored two or more goals per game this season in the league, a record. For them to maintain that perfect record they have to break their poor run of form against Liverpool. This season, Man City have already demolished city rivals Man United 6-2 and mauled Tottenham Hotspur 5-0. They are confident in the league and will be hoping toget back to winning ways after their mid-week Champions League.
New signing Sergio Aguero has been in inspiring form, scoring 10 goals in 11 games this season, while his strike partners Edin Dzeko and Balotelli have consistently found the back of the net this season.
Liverpool will be hoping on continue their good run against City this afternoon. Last season, Andy Carrol made his first mark as a Liverpool player by grabbing a brace in the 3-0 demolition of Man City.Tottenham are the only club to have scored more than a goal against Liverpool this season, against a city side that has scored two goals or more in their last 14 games.
Liverpool are fighting for a Champions league spot this season, and they are level on points with Chelsea and Arsenal. Liverpool have failed to qualify for the Champions League for the past two seasons and hope to break into the top four this season, despite having the best defensive record in the league. All eyes will be on Luis Suarez to deliver the goods, once again, for Liverpool. Last week’s hero, Glen Johnson, who scored the winning goal against Chelsea believes they need to win more home games: “Normally, a team’s best form is at home.
“As long as we can start picking up a few more points at home and doing what we are doing away, then we won’t be too far away.
“We haven’t been playing badly at home.
“We have created some fantastic chances and if we had taken one of them in a few games, we would have nine or 10 more points and it would make it a whole, new ball game.”
Starting Line Up
Liverpool Starting XI: Pepe Reina, Martin Kelly, Martin Skrtel, Daniel Agger, Jose Enrique, Lucas Leiva, Dirk Kuyt, Charlie Adam, Stewart Downing, Craig Bellamy, Luis Suarez.
Manchester City Starting XI:
Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Vincent Kompany, Joleon Lescott, Gaël Clichy, Gareth Barry, Yaya Toure, Samir Nasri, David Silva, Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko.
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