Liverpool kept themselves in the race for the title by claiming a last gasp win against Spurs at Anfield last night. With City having won against Fulham on Saturday, it was imperative that the Reds won, and their title dreams seemed to be slipping away until a late own goal from Toby Alderweireld, courtesy a horrible error from Spurs stopper Hugo Lloris, sent Anfield into delirium. When Lucas Moura equalised for Spurs, Reds boss Klopp, realising that Liverpool simply had to score, removed Jordan Henderson and James Milner and sent on Fabinho and Divock Origi, effectively switching to a 4-2-4. It could’ve backfired but for an inspired moment of defending from Virgil van Dijk that forced a miss from Moussa Sissoko in a 2v1 situation.
Let’s take a look at who City and Liverpool still have to play in the next few weeks. Remember that while Liverpool hold a two point advantage over second place City, the defending champions have a game in hand.
Liverpool have six fixtures remaining. Three are at home- Chelsea, Huddersfield and Wolves, with Southampton, Cardiff and Newcastle on the road.
Cardiff and Southampton, at the time of writing, are still candidates for the drop. Teams battling relegation often take their game up a notch, and Southampton away in particular, could be a very tricky fixture for the Reds.
Chelsea at home is another tough fixture and memories of that Gerrard slip five years ago still haunt Liverpool fans. The race for fourth place is a tight one (United, Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea are effectively battling for two CL spots next season).
Newcastle away is a trip to former Reds manager Rafa Benitez.
Liverpool probably have the easier set of opponents plus a Champions League tie against a team they beat comfortably last season (Porto), but a look at Bookmakers.bet reveals that this is very much City’s title to lose- the defending champions being quoted at 4/9 while Liverpool are at 7/4.
Let’s take a look at City’s set of fixtures
There are three fixtures from this list that immediately stand out- Spurs and Leicester at home, and Man Utd away. Spurs are also City’s CL opponents while Leicester are now managed by former Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers, who was in charge of the Reds’ heartbreaking 2013/14 league campaign. The fixture at Old Trafford will be Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s first Manchester derby after being appointed as permanent manager, and despite the traditional rivalry between Man Utd and Liverpool, City should probably not expect any favours from the Red Devils.
Interestingly enough, both Leicester and Palace were victorious against City earlier this season, and will be hoping to complete a rare league double over Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering side.
On paper, City appear to have the tougher fixture list, but given the depth and resources at Pep Guardiola’s disposal and Liverpool’s tendency to slip under pressure, it’s not difficult to understand why many expect them to retain the title. Their trophy defence is in their hands- win all their fixtures and they’ll again be crowned champions, regardless of what Liverpool do in their fixtures.
