Manchester City v Liverpool – Preview and Betting Tip
Liverpool travel to Manchester City to face a team that will be desperate to pick up three points with a potential gap between themselves and Manchester United of ten points by the time the game kicks-off. Liverpool’s hopes of claiming a top four pace look pretty remote, despite the hopes of the club’s hierarchy and supporters. City will start as favourites for this fixture, and should the home side carve out another victory here, then Liverpool will only retain an outside chance of qualifying for the top four.
City had looked to be heading very much in the right direction before being held to a goalless draw at Queen’s Park Rangers. Perhaps they can reflect, though, that the QPR goalkeeper Julio Cesar turned in an unbelievable display, and that there was nothing fundamentally wrong with City’s performance. Certainly the slight defensive vulnerability that the reigning champions showed earlier in the season seems to have disappeared completely, regardless of the fact that a settled defence has been a luxury that City have not enjoyed in recent weeks.
This will be a real test for Liverpool. The Anfield club can claim to have come out of the mid-week fixture with Arsenal with more positives than negatives, but the fact remains that they are yet to beat anyone all season who has been ahead of them in the table when they’ve played. This is a pretty unenviable record, and yet Liverpool fans seem to believe that their team ought to be competing with the likes of City. Here is an opportunity for them to find out how close / far away (delete as applicable) they are from this goal.
Vincent Kompany may be fit enough to return to the Manchester City defence for this fixture. Should that be the case, the home side will revert to a back four and move Javi Garcia into midfield. Edin Dzeko may again be preferred to Carlos Tevez in attack. Liverpool have a variety of options in midfield, but may field £15 million signing Joe Allen ahead of Jordan Henderson despite the latter’s goal against Arsenal. Daniel Sturridge will lead the Livepool line ahead of Luis Suarez, and Raheem Sterling may start ahead of Stewart Downing. Martin Skrtel may also be recalled to start at centre-back replacing Jamie Carragher, who played against Arsenal in mid-week.
Manchester City (possible 4-3-2-1): Hart; Zabaleta, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy; Milner, Barry, Garcia; Silva, Aguero; Dzeko
Liverpool (possible 4-2-3-1): Jones; Wisdom, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson; Allen, Lucas; Suarez, Gerrard, Sterling; Sturridge
Betting Prediction: Liverpool have a forward line that is capable of testing any defence, and with City suffering from a defensive crisis, I can see Suarez and Sturridge giving the City backline a difficult afternoon. By the same token, Liverpool’s defence has shown few signs of being able to keep clean sheets away from home, and against City’s superb midfield and potent attack, I can’t see this match being any different. So my tip for this match if for there to be more than 2.5 goals. If you feel like sticking your neck out, you could go for the over 3.5 goals bet.
