Manchester City vs Liverpool: Will Klopp maintain fine record over Guardiola?

 

Could tonight’s meeting between Manchester City and Liverpool prove determine who lands the Premier League title this season? The Reds currently sit six points ahead of Tottenham in second and seven ahead of City having won 17 of 20 league matches this season. The only teams they have dropped points to are Chelsea, Arsenal and City and having played the former duo away from home, they are title favourites coming into tonight’s clash at the Etihad Stadium. 

 

Liverpool remain the Premier League’s only unbeaten team at this stage of the season and a stalemate will be more than enough to maintain their seemingly unstoppable pursuit of the title. Admittedly, Liverpool were lucky to come away from their clash with City at Anfield with a point as Riyad Mahrez blazed over the bar from the penalty spot in added time, but their record under Jurgen Klopp against their traditional top six rivals provides a solid foundation to capitalise upon. 

 

Klopp has overseen 42 competitive matches against City, Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal since taking over the reins at Anfield and has lost just eight of those 42 matches, one of which was via a penalty shootout in a League Cup final. Given the German’s impressive record against Pep Guardiola, too - Klopp has won eight and drawn two of the 15 meetings between the managerial pair - City won’t have it easy in front of their own fans. 

 

The defending champions have looked rusty in recent weeks having lost three of their last five league matches after losing only two of the previous 53 Premier League outings and their record against Liverpool is underwhelming to say the least. Indeed, they’ve failed to win the last four encounters, losing three, including a 2-1 loss to the Reds in the Champions League semi-final match up at the Etihad last term. 

 

With Benjamin Mendy out and Fabian Delph suspended, maximising a weakened left side of defence could be crucial in Liverpool’s attempts to land a result tonight, even if Aymeric Laporte operates at left-back. Yet the decision to field the Frenchman in this role leaves City’s somewhat weaker in the middle, but it’s either Laporte or Oleksandr Zinchenko starting at left-back and judging by the latter’s difficult afternoon at Southampton, Guardiola may elect not to start the Ukrainian against Mohamed Salah. 

 

 

Even so, Laporte started both Champions League matches at left-back as Liverpool romped to a 5-1 aggregate win over their title rivals last season, so Salah and the rest of Liverpool’s fluid attack should be confident of putting City to the sword. Nevertheless, Liverpool remain the 3.90 outsiders to win at the Etihad Stadium with Bet365, and that's huge price given the Reds’ top six record under Klopp and their unbeaten run so far. 

 

Granted, they have dropped points against the top six this season, yet even so; they’ll fancy their chances of adding another three points. A safer bet would be for a Liverpool win or draw at 1.85, while pushing the boat out further; Liverpool to win and both teams to score is a tantalising 6.00. We have predicted a 3-1 win for Liverpool tonight and you stand to win big if that result comes off.

Manchester City vs Liverpool: Will Klopp maintain fine record over Guardiola?