Liverpool welcome Manchester City to Anfield in Sunday’s high-billed Premier League clash between the two English top-flight heavyweights.
A 13-point gap already separates the two rivals in the table and few would have expected that the upcoming meeting would have Liverpool head into the contest as major underdogs on the back of their faltering start to the campaign.
The Reds were left to rue over a couple of controversial decisions in last week’s 3-2 defeat to the table toppers Arsenal which left Jurgen Klopp’s men sitting tenth in the league standings and signal that all was not right in the Liverpool camp eight games into the season.
A thumping 7-1 win over Rangers in the Champions League group stage outing midweek did have talisman Mo Salah, who netted the fastest hat-trick in the competition’s history after coming off the bench, return to his prolific best in front of the goal
Darwin Nunez, Harvey Elliott and Roberto Firmino with the other scorers for the visitors to Ibrox with the latter netting a brace to continue his red hot streak of form which makes him a viable name to make the Liverpool XI for Sunday’s game against the defending champions.
Manchester City, meanwhile, had to settle for a rather unusual goalless draw on their travels to Copenhagen in midweek with the Citizens missing Erling Braut Haaland who will surely be eyeing a return to the team sheet in time for the upcoming Anfield showdown.
City’s most recent league game came against Southampton in which they scored four without reply to pick up another convincing win and move just a point adrift of Arsenal at the summit.
WHEN & WHERE?
Date: Sunday 16 October 2022
Time: 7 PM GMT
Venue: Anfield
TEAM NEWS
Liverpool had a host of injury concerns post the defeat to Arsenal last week with defensive duo Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip joining star winger Luis Diaz on the sidelines.
All three players would be sitting out Sunday’s contest alongside Naby Keita and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who also remain on the recovery table.
Recent absentee Andy Robertson came off the bench in the Champions League win over Rangers and the Scottish left-back could be in line to take over from Kostas Tsimikas in the XI that will take the field against City.
KEY BATTLE
Mohamed Salah vs Erling Haaland
Salah was back to his brilliant best in the win over Rangers with a record-setting hat-trick in the Champions League group stage game minutes after coming off the bench in the second half.
The Egyptian, however, has struggled to perform in top-flight football so far this season and will be looking to make amends for that in the high-billed game against City who have their summer signing Erling Haaland on red-hot form heading into the contest.
Haaland has netted three hat-tricks in Premier League football this season and with 15 goals, the 22-year-old leads the goalscoring charts by a sizable margin.
MATCH PREDICTION
Few would consider Liverpool to be the favourites for Sunday’s Anfield showdown despite the home support which would be cheering on their under-fire team against an in-form Manchester City side.
Liverpool 1-3 Manchester City
