Having beaten Liverpool 3-0 at the start of the season, can Roberto Mancini’s men put up a another splendid performance against the Reds at the most pivotal stage of the season?
Liverpool will host Manchester City at Anfield tonight, looking to boost their hopes of getting a place in the top 4 at the end of the season. Having both played 31 games, Liverpool are at an uncomfortable 6th position while Manchester City are sitting in 4th with 7 nail-biting games left to play.
With both of their top right-backs (Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly) out for another month, centre-back Jamie Carragher will most likely be forced to play down an unfamiliar right flank. Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Martin Skrtel will both be starting as the two main men at the Liverpool defence due to the absence of Daniel Agger (who will be out for the rest of the season).
Skipper Steven Gerrard’s hopes of returning back into action this season has been demolished after the 30-year-old suffered a groin knack that will rule him out for the rest of the season.
Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll are both likely to start alongside each other as Liverpool’s two front men – supported by Raul Meireles. The both of them have previously been described by their Anfield captain as the “Most Fearsome Duo”.
Manchester City will be hoping to emerge victorious out of this match in order to keep their slim title hopes alive. They are currently 13-points adrift of current league leaders Manchester United. Last week, Roberto Mancini’s men put up one of their best performance’s of the season, thrashing Sunderland 5-0 at Eastlands.
With defender Vincent Kompany on red-hot form this season, Manchester City’s defence looks strong – with the side keeping the highest number of clean sheets in the Barclays Premier League this season. But they will be without injured full-backs Jerome Boateng and Micah Richards.
The side’s top goal scorer, Carlos Tevez, is likely to start alongside Mario Balotelli – who has been making the headlines lately for all sorts of wrong reasons. Balotelli was recently fined two weeks’ wages after being sent off for a reckless challenge against Dynamo Kiev in the Europa League. In fact, he has also been docked another week’s wages for throwing darts at Manchester City youth-team players from a window at the training base – claiming that he did so because he was “bored”. Liverpool have won 3 of they last 10 fixtures against Manchester City, losing one and drawing the other 6.
Probable team line-ups:
Liverpool : Reina, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Wilson, Carragher, Spearing, Lucas, Kuyt, Meireles, Carroll, Suarez
Manchester City : Hart, Kompany, Lescott, Kolarov, Boyata, De Jong, Barry, Toure, Silva, Balotelli, Tevez
Submitted by Two Liverpool Fans
