After dishing out a memorable and mouth-watering encounter on Sunday, Manchester City and Liverpool are back in English Premier League action tonight. City welcome Fulham to the Etihad Stadium as they look to kick on following the dramatic 2-1 victory at Liverpool on Sunday.
Defending champions Liverpool, who fell further behind in the title race after the dramatic loss to City, will visit Sunderland FC at 10pm (SA time).
City has an outstanding record against the Cottagers. It won the last 19 encounters between the clubs in all competitions. They will go into this game second in the Premier League. And they aim to exert pressure on leaders Arsenal, who start match week six points ahead.
Mid-Premier League position
Fulham sit slap bang in the middle of the Premier League. They’re 10th with 34 points from 25 games, having won 10 times and lost on 11 occasions. That leaves them just three points behind eighth, but also only three points ahead of 14th.
In terms of head-to-head, City released stats on their page explaining that they have won each of the last 19 meetings between these two sides. This is the longest such run in the history of English football. And 16 of those have come in the Premier League, which is also the longest league run. City’s last defeat against Fulham came 26 meetings ago, all the way back in 2009. While City scored at least two goals in each of their last 20 clashes.
Out of 35 Premier League meetings in total, City have won 22 — scoring 84 goals and conceding 40. The last meeting was perhaps the most entertaining of the lot. City came out 5 – 4 winners in a thriller in December. In terms of formation, Fulham favour a 4-2-3-1 shape. And they appear to have settled on many of the personnel to make up that team.
Pressure is on Liverpool
Liverpool will need to start picking up points if they want to see themselves securing a spot in the UEFA Champions League. Said Arne Slot on the club’s website when asked how perfect results are needed for Liverpool to achieve Champions League qualification.
“Yeah, close to perfection because of the points we’re behind. We also know that it’s different when you are four points behind a team that’s 18th or 19th in the league. So, to close the gap of four or five points towards the number three, four or five, that means you have to win a lot.
“And that’s not what we’ve done this season a lot. So that’s why that has to be better, and we have to come close to perfection. Margins are indeed very small. Because seven minutes before the end [on Sunday] we thought we were five points behind [Manchester] City. And five minutes later we were 11 points behind,” added Slot.
City coach Pep Guardiola was hugely impressed with the composure of his number 9, Erling Haaland, in slotting away the penalty in the cauldron of Anfield.
“I know it’s not easy,” the boss said in his pre-match press conference.
Taking on Anfield
“Anfield in the 91st and 92nd minutes, in the situation we have, taking it there, making this composure and his body language with his eyes with fire in that, it’s not easy. That defines the good players. He takes a lot of responsibility on himself; he wants to help all the time.
“The way he celebrated the goal, you know he desperately wants to help the team and the club. But as I said to him, don’t put too much pressure on. Go there and rely on your instinct, rely on your movements. And anticipate the actions like your instinct is better than anyone else’s in the world. Strikers always make the turnaround and come back.”
Guardiola added that Haaland is currently having to deal with the expectation that comes with his unbelievable first three years in the sky blue, which has seen him break goalscoring record after goalscoring record and help the Blues to six major trophies, including a treble triumph.
