Team by team the Premier League pretenders are revealing their flaws, a process that restores to the centre of things the epoch’s outstanding performers. Liverpool and Manchester City meet on Sunday in a fixture that has become the hallmark of quality in English football.
Tottenham briefly occupied high station before three successive defeats cruelly introduced perspective. Manchester United, victims of a late goal by Aston Villa that inflicted a first league defeat, have suffered similarly. Events before and after the Villa reverse proved that Cristiano Ronaldo alone will not be enough to save Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Yet at Anfield and the Etihad strength and vigour are all about. Liverpool look once more like the team that won the crown in 2020, while any idea that Manchester City might be fragile in the absence of a recognised centre-forward was binned in the victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
City never needed a prolific striker, though none would deny Sergio Aguero’s contribution to club lore. City didn’t have him for much of last season yet scored more goals than any other and topped the league with the best goal difference. Though the margin of victory at Chelsea was narrow, the scale was huge and fully deserved.
Liverpool vs Man City details
- Date: Sunday 3 October
- Kick-off time: 4.30pm
- TV channel: Sky Sports Main Event/Sky Sports Premier League
- Live stream: Sky Go for existing subscribers or via a NOW day pass from £9.99
There will be those who point to Paris in midweek as proof of susceptibility. Importantly Liverpool’s manager is not one of them. “Manchester City are an outstanding football team,” Jürgen Klopp said. “They lost against Paris Saint-Germain and straight after the game I said they will probably strike back.
“But they don’t have to, as I have since watched the game and they played really good. They didn’t use their chances and PSG scored, but when you think of PSG’s quality and the way Man City dominated them, it tells you a lot about their quality.”
Liverpool remain the one unbeaten team in the Premier League. Only Chelsea, adopting the Alamo configuration during a second half played with 10 men, and Brentford have held them.
The latter produced a spirited display last weekend in a match that proclaimed the Premier League’s USP, namely the capacity of the unfancied to land blows on the mighty. It was also the case that, were Brentford to play Liverpool 10 times in a week, the point they earned might easily be their only reward.
Klopp’s achievement in winning the title in 2020 was notable not because it was the first for 30 years, but for the manner of its delivery. Under him Liverpool made arguably the greatest club side ever assembled in England blink. The first real manifestation of that was in January 2019 at the Etihad.
Liverpool’s aggression and confidence rendered a back-pedalling City rudderless early on. City scored first but the goal came against the run of play, and stole the points 18 minutes from time, But Liverpool reinforced the feeling that a shift in power was afoot. They edged possession and had more shots on target at the Etihad, hitherto unthinkable at City under Pep Guardiola.
Klopp knew then that Liverpool had the measure of City, and the following season would lead them to the title by a staggering 18 points. Guardiola conceded ahead of Sunday’s visit to Anfield how Liverpool’s rise forced him to re-evaluate his own methods. “Jürgen Klopp’s teams helped me to be a better manager,” he said. “He put me at another level, to think about it, to prove myself, to be a better manager. That is the reason why I am still in this business.”
In Virgil van Dijk, Klopp has bolted a new engine to the chassis, transforming performance. The forward re-orientation of Fabinho has restored midfield equilibrium and freed up the front three.
Since the beginning of the year, after an uncertain autumn in 2020, City have rediscovered their emphatic rhythms, and Guardiola his sense of purpose.
In the first weekend of October this match is not a title decider, rather a contest within a contest, a spectacle to savour before the clocks go back and winter cloaks us in darkness.
Predicted teams
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3oE5Hqz
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