When Liverpool and Man City step out onto the Anfield turf on Sunday afternoon, they will know precisely what’s at stake.
Title rivals Arsenal will have already played against Brentford, and if Mikel Arteta’s side have managed to overcome the Bees, it is the Gunners that will be sitting proudly at the top of the Premier League table when the whistle goes on the Super Sunday kick-off.
The Spaniard will undoubtedly be hoping that the Reds and the Cityzens end up drawing as it will mean that the title race will then be back in Arsenal’s hands, but it’s going to be an incredibly long 90+ minutes for the North Londoners.
That’s because both Liverpool and City will be at it from the first minute to the last and those in attendance at the famous old ground will surely be witness to a modern day classic.
Liverpool v Man City is virtually a guarantee of goals
Liverpool v Man City Tickets are still available, though any fans that want to make the game will have to be quick before it becomes a sell-out.
The plot lines for the match are wonderfully varied too.
Erling Haaland up against Virgil van Dijk, Mo Salah – if he’s again passed fit – ready to torment whichever back line Pep Guardiola deems to be the right one, Caoimhin Kelleher playing arguably the biggest game of his career to date, and much more besides.
Trent Alexander-Arnold’s pre-match words have also triggered City somewhat, and that adds an extra layer of spice to a fixture that doesn’t really need anything more for the blue touch paper to be lit.
Chris Sutton has noted that fortune favours the hosts in these fixtures but won’t rule the visitors out of bagging all three points.
“The statistic about City not beating the teams around them is important, because those head-to-head encounters decide the title,” he wrote in his BBC column.
“City’s record at Anfield is not great either – they have only won once there in seven league visits under Pep Guardiola. Even so, you would have to be a fool to write them off going into this game.”
The match could represent the last time that Messrs. Klopp and Guardiola meet for a while, given that the former is supposedly taking a sabbatical at the end of the current campaign.
There is a chance that both teams could meet again in the FA Cup, but given that Guardiola has deemed Klopp to be his toughest opponent (Sky Sports), the City manager will probably be hoping that they avoid each other after Sunday.
Whatever happens, the game is sure to be one for the ages. There have only been three goalless draws in the fixture over the last 17 years; in 2018, 2010 and 2007, per 11 v 11, so goals are virtually guaranteed.
Game on!