Liverpool vs. Manchester City has been a marquee match for the past decade or so and it’s a massive one this weekend.
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We still have nearly three full months of the English Premier League to enjoy before a champion will be crowned, but this week may define who’s holding the trophy come May.
Liverpool vs. Manchester City has been a marquee match for the past decade or so and it’s a massive one this weekend. Yet not because a Liverpool win in the blue half of Manchester would move them 17 points ahead of City, but because Arsenal will be desperate for City to take any points off Liverpool, even another draw.
With Liverpool playing the Carabao Cup final in March, their Premier League game from that weekend was brought forward and played on Wednesday. The game saw Liverpool draw yet again, two more points sliced off their once-healthy lead.
Arsenal now has a game in hand, which they’ll play March 16 against Chelsea — win that and the lead would be cut to five.
This stretch Liverpool has been embroiled in has been taxing and their overt reluctance to add players to the squad in both the summer and winter transfer windows has left their team look leggy, tired, making mistakes and frequently struggling late in matches.
A brutal, and final, visit to Goodison Park saw a last-gasp equalizer by Everton as the Reds dropped two points. Then came a nervy and unconvincing home win to Wolves, followed by this week’s tough trip to Aston Villa, who have only lost once at home all season. Liverpool gave up a lead yet again after going up 1-0, but ending up needing a late goal from Trent Alexander-Arnold to gain a 2-2 draw.
But Liverpool’s next assignment is at City’s Etihad Stadium, where the Merseysiders have won just once in their past 15 visits, though there have been five draws and Liverpool beat City in the Champions League there in 2018 en route to the final.
What’s going to be fascinating about Sunday’s game is City’s emotional state. They were walloped 3-1 (6-3 on aggregate) by Real Madrid on Wednesday and knocked out of the Champions League.
With the league well out of sight, does that leave an emotional hangover for them in the league this weekend? Or with the pressure off, will they play more freely knowing the most coveted prizes — the league championship and the Champions League — are gone? Or do they come out with fire and anger trying to derail Liverpool’s title bid?
Their approach on the weekend is going to be something to watch.
Following the City game on Sunday, Liverpool hosts Newcastle next Wednesday, a team that seems equally capable of winning 4-0 or losing 4-0 in any given game.
Arsenal, by comparison, had this midweek off, then gets woeful West Ham at home then a trip to stumbling Nottingham Forest next Wednesday.
If Liverpool drops any points at all in these next two games, you’d likely bank on Arsenal grabbing six points and closing the gap even further.
If Liverpool gets through this stretch with more than a three-point lead, it’ll be breathing easier as the Reds’ toughest games left will be Arsenal (but at Anfield), at Chelsea and at Brighton.
Gunners in the Forest
Arsenal is still licking its wounds over leading scorer Kai Havertz’s hamstring surgery that has ended his season and pondering their lack of a recognized striker in the squad. That’s why next Wednesday’s trip to Nottingham and third-place Forest is such a massive test.
After ripping off six straight wins into the New Year and going unbeaten in eight, Forest has lost two of the past three, including a 5-0 pasting vs. Bournemouth and a slip to Fulham last weekend 2-1.
Is this Forest coming back to earth? Arsenal certainly will hope so. The upstart Tricky Trees took four of six points off Liverpool this season, getting a full three points here will be a real leg up for the Gunners.
After being so stout defensively for so much of the season, Nottingham has given up nine goals in the past four matches. Can they lock it down again and make Arsenal, with so many forwards injured, struggle for goals?
If not, the pressure keeps piling on Liverpool and a title race that looked on the verge of a runaway a month ago will squeeze into a spectacular dash to the finish.
United they fall
There has been some serious chatter from former Manchester United greats that there’s a real fear of relegation from those within the club.
While they’ve lost three of their past four, have only won twice in their past nine games and they face Everton this weekend, which hasn’t lost in five — four wins and an impressive draw against league-leaders Liverpool — it would still seem to be rather unlikely.
It’s not that United are any great shakes, or that you’ll expect results to really pick up for them, but there’s just so much dreadfulness below them.
United currently is two points ahead of West Ham, but they’re 10 above Wolves and 12 above both Ipswich and Leicester, who both sit in the relegation spots.
OK, they may get passed by West Ham and maybe even pushed by Wolves, but it’s going to be difficult to see Ipswich or Leicester pick up 12 points from now until the end of the season, let alone United not scrambling a few points along the way.
The goal difference also is prohibitive with Ipswich (-27), Leicester (-30), pretty much giving an extra point to United which are at -7.
Yes, it has been a dreadful season for the Red Devils, but they’re stuck in limbo — safe from the drop but so far out of the European spots that’s not even something to shoot for.
This week’s slate
Friday: Leicester City vs Brentford
Saturday: Everton vs Manchester United; Arsenal vs West Ham; Bournemouth vs Wolves; Fulham vs Crystal Palace; Ipswich vs Tottenham; Southampton vs Brighton; Aston Villa vs Chelsea.
Sunday: Newcastle vs Nottingham Forest; Manchester City vs Liverpool.
Tuesday: Brighton vs Bournemouth; Crystal Palace vs Aston Villa; Wolves vs Fulham; Chelsea vs Southampton.
Wednesday: Brentford vs Everton; Manchester United vs Ipswich; Nottingham Forest vs Arsenal; Tottenham vs Manchester City; Liverpool vs Newcastle.
Thursday: West Ham vs Leicester.