The 2-2 draw on Wednesday with Aston Villa has stretched Liverpool's lead over Premier League title Rivals Arsenal to eight points, but with the Gunners organizing West Ham on Saturday, Arne Slot will expect this to be cut before the leaders are up return to action on Sunday.
The pressure is firmly on its red while they are approaching one of their most discouraging luminaires that have been left this season, against Manchester City in the Etihad Stadium.
City suffered a Meek Champions League elimination by Real Madrid on Wednesday, lost 3-1 in Spain and 6-3 on aggregated, and did not achieve the usual elevated standards throughout the season.
But Pep Guardiola will still be desperate to get one about the rivals of the city, especially with his team involved in a battle for a top four finish.
Here we look ahead to one of the largest matches of the Premier League season with our opta-driven preview.
What is expected?
The OPTA Supercomputer is struggling to split these teams, with the city giving a 35% chance of winning the 40.5% of Liverpool.
A draw that Liverpool may not afford if they try to ward off the second placed arsenal is considered a probability of 24.5%.
After their 2-0 win in the December Return match, Liverpool wants to complete the Premier League Double for the third time, earlier in 2005-06 and 2015-16.
The Reds have reached the Premier League Double about the ruling champions on six earlier occasions – more than any other club in the history of the competition.
They did this against Blackburn Rovers in 1995-96, Manchester United in 2000-01, 2001-02, 2008-09 and 2013-14, and Chelsea in 2010-11.
Liverpool can enter the game as heavy title favorites, but City recently enjoyed a revival and should offer a strict test.
Since Christmas, only Liverpool and Arsenal have won more points in the Premier League than the men of Guardiola (17 – five victories, two drawings, one loss). In their eight games in advance, City took only four points (one win, one draw, six defeats).
Can 'mini-rodri' make the difference?
City is looking for a player who since September, when he contracted his seasonal knee injury against Arsenal in their midfield in their midfield in their midfield that he sustained.
The failure to control the battlefield in midfield has been one of the main reasons for their Under-Par campaign, and those struggles are especially clear against the best teams of the competition.
Between Rodri's injury and last weekend's 4-0 win over Newcastle United, City played seven Premier League matches against teams that finished in the top eight last season. They won only one, against Chelsea last month, pulled one one and lost the other five.
Last season, City played 12 games against those same opponents with Rodri in their starting line -up, won six and pulled six.
Last week's routes of Newcastle coincided with Guardiola, who handed over a Premier League debut to a player he has since described as a “mini-rodri”-previously Porto midfielder Nico Gonzalez.
Nico completed 100 passes against Newcastle, the second most by a midfielder on their Premier League debut on record (since 2003-04). Thirty of those steps came in the last third, a game-high figure. He could now break the record for most passes completed by each player in their first two Premier League matches together; Thiago Silva's 192 in 2020.
Nico also made a team-high three tackles and won four of his five duels against Newcastle, while City's increased control level was clear from the fact that it was their first Premier League match this season in which they had no big chance.
Nico may not have had the same impact on the Santiago Bernabeu in the midweek, but he scored his first city goal, also with most touches (89) and accurate passes (71) of each player on the field in Madrid.
Nico will have to be exceptional against Liverpool on both sides of the ball, but a promising start to his city career suggests that he could be the player they have missed.
Reds rock?
The Liverpool Midweekekking with Villa was their second in their last three Premier League matches, after James Tarkowski's stop-time hereldics in the last Merseyside Derby in Goodison Park.
It could be claimed that it should have been three straight draws, because Liverpool continued to hold in last week's 2-1 win over Wolves in Anfield.
In the second half of that match, the Reds did not succeed in trying a single shot and faced 10-it was the first time on record (since 2003-04) that they had a full half of Premier League football Played without a shot.
Liverpool has only had fewer shots throughout the season than their opponents in four Premier League matches, and two of those authorities came in their last three outings (10-16 versus Wolves, 6-10 against Everton).
The team from Slot had another problem against Villa, so they did not take their chances when they won the expected goals (XG) struggle with 2.51 to 0.67. Darwin Nunez came in for great criticism after flaring a gaping goal, when an opportunity was offered worth 0.75 xg.
The absence of Cody Gakpo – who limits Everton and doubts for Sunday's game – has certainly had an impact in recent competitions.
Among all Liverpool players, the Dutchman is in second place than Mohamed Salah for goals (16), total target involvement (21) and Schoten tried (72) in all competitions this season.
Regardless of the availability of Gakpo, Slot will know that Liverpool needs an improvement at both ends of the field on a land where they only won once in their last 15 competition visits (4-1 in November 2015).
The Reds have been on the road excellent this season, however, with Wednesday's draw, making them only the sixth team in the English history of top flight to be unbeaten by their first 14 games of a season. They may have to show that resilience at Etihad.
Players to watch
Manchester City – Omar Marmoush
Marmoush goes against his countryman Salah and hope to match the impact he made against Newcastle last week.
He scored a hat trick within 33 minutes of that match, the second fastest Treble ever scored by a city player in the Premier League, after the 24-minute Hattrick by Kevin De Bruyne in Wolves in May 2022.
Liverpool – Mohamed Salah
Salah has been involved in more Premier League goals against Manchester City by Guardiola (since 2016-17) than any other player (13-night goals, five assists).
In fact, only colleague Liverpool -icon Steven Gerrard (14) has ever been more involved with the citizens in the history of the competition (four goals, 10 assists).
Mohamed Salah Lionel Messi pic.twitter.com/wzo8lxdjmj
– Premier League (@premierleague) February 20, 2025
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