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LONDON. — Manchester City and Liverpool have dominated the English Premier League over the past four seasons.
But, a sizeable gap has opened up between the leaders and the champions ahead of their latest meeting tomorrow.
With champions Liverpool on the ropes, City have the chance to knock Juergen Klopp’s side effectively out of the title race at Anfield.
City have won their last nine league games while Liverpool’s midweek defeat by Brighton and Hove Albion has left them seven points adrift.
“I’m manager of Liverpool and you always ask — as we were champions last year — and I have to say ‘oh my God, we want to be champions, yes we want it’”, Klopp said.
“But you need the games for it and you need the performances for it. And we don’t have them. That’s the truth as well.”
Klopp, whose side are in danger of losing three successive league games at home having gone unbeaten in the previous 68, stopped short of saying defeat by City would make it impossible to win the title.
“We have to fight for other things. We fight for three points,” the German, who hopes forward Sadio Mane will have recovered from injury and keeper Alisson from illness, in time to face a rampant City, said.
Guardiola’s men have conceded just one goal in winning their past nine league games.
“At the end the aim is to be champion,” said Guardiola, looking ahead after easing past Burnley on Wednesday. “It is the same (three) points, but against a contender.”
Liverpool remain fourth for now despite their faltering form but just nine points separate them from Arsenal in 10th spot.
They are four points behind second-placed Manchester United, who take on sixth-placed Everton today, while Leicester City are in third place, two points ahead of Liverpool.
Leicester travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers tomorrow.
West Ham United have also emerged as unlikely challengers for a top-four finish.
New signing Jesse Lingard scored twice in their 3-1 win at Aston Villa on Wednesday, a result that lifted the Hammers into fifth place and a win at Fulham today would see them leapfrog Liverpool.
“Did you say top four there? I nearly choked there when you said that!” was the reaction of West Ham manager David Moyes when asked about his side’s chances of finishing among the Champions League qualification places.
“Let’s hope we can put ourselves in a position that after the next couple of league games it might give us a chance of capitalising on the other teams who have European football.”
Arsenal will hope to bounce back from their midweek defeat by Wolves, when they ended with nine men after two red cards, as they travel to Aston Villa for today’s early kick-off.
Few would bet against the current bottom three going down at the end of the season as they are well adrift of safety.
Bottom club Sheffield United are showing signs of life, however, having won three of their last five games including this week’s 2-1 win at second-from-bottom West Brom.
Survival still looks like it would need a minor miracle as they are 11 points behind 17th-placed Burnley but a home victory over Chelsea tomorrow would fuel hope of a great escape.
“There’s some ridiculous challenges ahead of us that we should enjoy,” manager Chris Wilder said.
A bad week for Fulham and West Brom combined with recent wins for Burnley, Brighton, Newcastle, Wolves and Crystal Palace has opened up an eight-point gap between the bottom three and survival.
“It leaves us with a great gap to fill,” said West Brom boss Sam Allardyce after taking just one point from games against Fulham and Sheffield United.
English Premiership Fixtures
Today: Aston Villa v Arsenal (2:30pm), Burnley v Brighton, Newcastle v Southampton (both 5pm), Fulham v West Ham (7:30pm), Manchester United v Everton (10pm)
Tomorrow: Tottenham v West Brom (2pm), Wolves v Leicester (4pm), Liverpool v Man City (6:30pm), Sheffield United v Chelsea (9:15pm)
Monday: Leeds v Crystal Palace (10pm)
Online Reporter