A new weekend and yet another high-profile game for Manchester City in the 2022/23 season. This Sunday, they face a seemingly out of form Liverpool, who have been a shadow of themselves in the Premier League this season. Despite being out of form, Liverpool are a formidable force and will come up strong in one of the most-watched fixtures in recent seasons. In their midweek games, Man City drew goalless with FC Copenhagen while Liverpool hit seven past Rangers in the UCL. This prepares the path for a very competitive fixture on Sunday afternoon at Anfield
TEAM NEWS
Last weekend’s loss at Arsenal was more devastating due to injuries key players suffered in the game. Luis Diaz suffered a knee injury, that rules him out until December at the earliest. Fullback, Trent Alexander-Arnold also suffer an ankle injury in the game and Joel Matip also had to be subbed due to a calf problem.
For Man City, there aren’t significant injury concerns with John Stones, Kalvin Phillips and Kyle Walker remaining out of this game too.
MATCH EXPECTATIONS
With the injury to Diaz, it is expected that Bobby Firmino will take his place in the starting XI after impressing in substitute appearances over the last month. In midweek against Rangers, he scored a brace and recorded an assist in the 7-1 win. He has developed an interesting partnership with Darwin Nunez and it could be telling this weekend on the back of their outing midweek. It would be particularly interesting to see Mo Salah’s form in the game after netting a hattrick against Rangers marking a possible turning of the corner after a dip in form in recent weeks. This game is seemingly a must-win, after the loss to Arsenal put more pressure on last season’s runners-up to pick up their form if they’re to mount a challenge for the coveted PL title.
For Manchester City, there is one name that keeps popping up in discussions and it’s the scary Erling Haaland. The Norwegian striker has already netted 20 times for Man City and was rested against Copenhagen. It would be extremely interesting to see his battle with Virgil Van Dijk as he seeks to score again this weekend, continuing an amazing run of goals. He could benefit from a leaky defense in recent weeks and punish the Reds on Sunday afternoon. That being said, it would be impossible to rule out other sources of goals for this City side who have shown that they are able to score goals with different players.
PREDICTED STARTING LINEUP
Liverpool lineup vs Man City: Alisson; Gomez, Konate, van Dijk, Tsimikas, Fabinho, Thiago, Salah, Jota, Nunez, Firmino.
Man City lineup vs Liverpool: Ederson; Akanji, Dias,Ake, Cancelo, Gundogan, Silva, De Bryne, Grealish, Haaland, Foden.
