Make or Break in Manchester?
All eyes will be on Man City – Liverpool in the PL this weekend, with Arsenal’s two biggest title rivals clashing in Manchester this Sunday. Both teams had strong wins in the CL this midweek, with Man City beating Dortmund 4-1 and Liverpool defeating Real Madrid by 1-0. Let’s take a closer look at Sunday’s big fixture!
Manchester City to re-ignite their title ambitions
Guardiola and Man City have been fairly solid at home this season, their only loss having come early on against Spurs back in August. Depending on how Arsenal do on Saturday, this weekend’s match against Liverpool could see them decrease the gap at the top down to only 3 points, but they’ll need some help from Sunderland against Arsenal for that to happen. Considering Man City’s first league match after the upcoming international break is away at Newcastle, this match feels like a ‘must-win’ for the Manchester hopefuls. Here are their next league 5 matches:
Liverpool (H)
Newcastle (A)
Leeds (H)
Fulham (A)
Sunderland (H)
Man City are unsurprisingly odds favourites at home, with the odds of them winning currently at 1.88. Guardiola is lucky enough to have a fairly fresh squad heading into the weekend, with only Kovacic out with an injury and Rodri seemingly on his way back after being out for their midweek fixture due to a hamstring injury. With no suspensions to deal with either, Man City are looking strong ahead of this weekend’s big match from England.
Are Man City too dependent on their star striker, though? Whereas the Man City that won the treble in 2022/23 seemed to have an endless source of players that could contribute with goals, no player other than their big striker have scored more than one goal in the league this season, which is quite spectacular considering we’re in November.
Looking at the player markets for this match, here are the first goalscorer odds for a few of their players that have been struggling for goals this season:
Marmoush – 5.50
Foden – 9.00
Cherki – 9.50
Reijnders – 9.50
Last Chance for Liverpool?
A loss for Liverpool here will put them 4 points behind Man City and, at worst, 10 points behind Arsenal, with eleven matches played. Although you should never say never in football, that should be too big a mountain to climb for Slot and his team, meaning this is an immensely important match for the defending champions.
Here are Liverpool’s next five league matches:
Man City (A)
Nottingham Forest (H)
West Ham (A)
Sunderland (H)
Leeds (A)
With Nottingham Forest and Sunderland coming up, both being tricky fixtures for any side struggling with consistency, Liverpool definitely could do with 3 points in this match, although Slot would probably also settle for a draw as well. Unlike Man City, the visitors do have a couple of injuries in the squad, namely Alisson, Frimpong, Leoni and Isak, although the latter could very well get involved from the bench on Sunday. The Swedish striker has continued struggling with injuries after his huge transfer from Newcastle to Liverpool this summer, and the Liverpool fans have yet to see him at his best.
Like Man City, there are no suspensions in the Liverpool squad. Slot will probably start with Ekitike, Salah, Szoboszlai and Wirtz, with the latter now having started to find the form that made him such a popular player at Bayer Leverkusen. Mamardashvili will put on the goalkeeper gloves again, with Bradley, Konate, VVD and Robertson a probable defensive line-up and Gravenberch and Mac Allister a likely midfield duo in front of them.
Here are the odds on a few Liverpool players on the first goalscorer of the match market:
Eikitike – 7.00
Salah – 7.50
Isak – 7.50
Gakpo – 10.00
Predictions
Although Man City are fairly clear odds favourites here, this feels like a match that could go either way, with plenty of individual talent on both sides! We feel a draw at 4.10 seems interesting in a match where both teams would love a win, but will also be desperate to avoid a loss. Enjoy the match!
Please note that the odds might have changed since the writing and/or publication of this article.
Last updated: 07.11.25
