O’Reilly returns as City make one change for trip to Liverpool
O’Reilly returns as City make one change for trip to Liverpool
City make one change for Sunday’s return to Premier League action away at Liverpool.
One Moment in Time: Boxing Day success at Anfield in 1981!
From the side that started our last competitive game – late September’s thrilling 5-3 league win at home to Sunderland – Nico O’Reilly comes into Enzo Maresca’s starting line-up.
Joško Gvardiol reverts to the bench with the Blues otherwise going with the players that secured that fine victory against the Black Cats.
Phil Foden is unavailable once more as he completes the last match of a three-game suspension.
Teams
LIVERPOOL XI: Alisson, Araujo, Jacquet, van Dijk, Kerkez, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Munoz, Wirtz, Barcola, Koumas
Subs: Mamardashvili, Gomez, Endo, Chiesa, Tsimikas, Frimpong, Nyoni, McConnell, Ngumoha
CITY XI: Donnarumma, Nunes, Dias (C), Guéhi, O’Reilly, Anderson, Fernández, Ndiaye, Cherki, Semenyo, Haaland.
Subs: Rulli, Kovačić, Doku, Reis, Gvardiol, Bouaddi, Allan, Khusanov, Lewis
Maresca: Our players are ready for Anfield test
How we line up
There’s a comforting familiarity to Maresca’s selection.
Gianluigi Donnarumma is a reassuring presence in goal with the Italian shielded by a back four of Matheus Nunes, skipper Ruben Dias, Marc Guéhi and O’Reilly.
Summer signings Elliot Anderson and Enzo Fernández are set to provide the steel and power in the Blues’ engine room with Rayan Cherki also in the midfield mix.
Erling Haaland will be the focal point of the City strike force with the Norwegian supplemented by the presence of Antoine Semenyo and Iliman Ndiaye on either flank.
Action stations
After an unfamiliar three-week domestic break due to an enforced international window, the focus is firmly back on club football.
Today’s huge clash presages the start of a demanding next month that will see City play nine fixtures in total across three competitions.
A trip to Anfield is always one of the most intense and demanding fixtures on the calendar and today will be no different.
City however will be fortified by the fact that we have made a perfect start to the Enzo Maresca era.
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Haaland: We have to stick together, enjoy the ride and smile!
Winning all seven of our competitive fixtures to date, including all five Premier League assignments.
That means the Blues will step out sitting top of the table with 15 points, ahead of Arsenal on goal difference and having a key game in hand on the Gunners.
Back-to-back delight?
Anfield hasn’t always been the happiest of hunting grounds for City but the Blues will kick-off today fortified by the memory of our last trip here.
A pulsating league encounter last February saw City roar back from a goal down to score twice claim a dramatic 2-1 victory, sealed by Erling Haaland’s injury-time penalty winner.
It was only our fourth league victory at Anfield since December 1981 – a stat which testifies just how demanding trips up the M62 have proved down the years.
But fortified by memorable wins on the road already this season at both Selhurst Park and Old Trafford, another three-point haul this afternoon would see Enzo Maresca’s men enjoy back-to-back league victories away to Liverpool for the first time since January 1953.
No lack of incentive then for the Blues ahead of kick-off.
How can I watch Liverpool v City on TV around the world?
Stats and facts
Liverpool lost home and away to Manchester City in the Premier League last season, the first time they have lost 2+ times in succession to the Citizens in the league since March 1937 (4 in a row).
This will be the first Premier League match between Liverpool and Manchester City with neither Jürgen Klopp nor Pep Guardiola in the dugout since March 2015, when Brendan Rodgers’ Reds beat Manuel Pellegrini’s Citizens 2-1 at Anfield.
The away side has won two of the last three Premier League games between Liverpool and City, as many as the previous 32 beforehand. The only time there have been two consecutive away wins in this Premier League fixture was in the 2002-03 campaign.
Liverpool have drawn both of their Premier League home games this season. Only six times previously have the Reds failed to win each of their first three league matches of a campaign at Anfield, just two of which have been since WWI: 1963-64 and 2012-13.
City are the only side to win all five of our Premier League games this season, while Enzo Maresca could become the fourth manager to win his first six matches of a spell in charge of a club in the competition, after Carlo Ancelotti with Chelsea, Pep Guardiola with City, and Ole Gunnar Solskjær with Manchester United.
Liverpool have applied high-intensity pressures to 48.9% of their opponent’s touches in the opposition’s half of the pitch in the Premier League this season – the highest rate of any side in 2026-27. Meanwhile, City are completing 83.0% of passes attempted while under high-intensity pressure in the competition this term, the best accuracy of any side.
Andoni Iraola could become only the third permanent Liverpool manager to avoid defeat in each of his first six top-flight matches in charge of the club, after Bob Paisley in 1974 and Joe Fagan in 1983.
The top two scorers in this season’s Premier League are Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (5 goals) and Liverpool’s Alexander Isak (4), who both also lead the league for expected goals (Haaland 4.4, Isak 3.5).
City’s Elliot Anderson tops all midfielders in the Premier League this season for line-breaking passes (105), progressive c
Source: sports.yahoo.com — article syndicated from the publisher’s feed; all rights remain with the original publisher.