Key events
Team news
Manchester City (4-3-3ish) Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, O’Reilly; Bernardo, Nico, Foden; Cherki, Haaland, Doku.
Subs: Trafford, Reijnders, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Ait-Nouri, Savinho, Bobb, Lewis.
Liverpool (4-3-3ish) Mamardashvili; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Ekitike, Wirtz.
Subs: Woodman, Gomez, Endo, Kerkez, Isak, Chiesa, Jones, Gakpo, Ngumoha.
Referee Chris Kavanagh.
Preamble
Hope comes in many forms. Faith. An unlikely human connection. A crescendo of such defiant beauty that you briefly forget the utter state of everything. And a 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light. Brian Brobbey’s late equaliser for Sunderland against Arsenal last night was exceedingly good news for Manchester City and Liverpool, who should be full of the joys going into this afternoon’s game at the Etihad Stadium.
They have the chance to close the gap on Arsenal to four and five points respectively. That’s the good news; the bad news is that only one of them – tops – can do it. City and Liverpool seem to be hitting their stride after dodgy spells earlier in the season. City have won 10 of the last 13 in all competitions; Liverpool ended their slump with defiant victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid.
They kept clean sheets in both games, too. That won’t be so easy against Erling Haaland, the red wine of any contemporary clean sheet metaphor. Haaland is in rampant form, with 10 goals in his last six games at the Etihad, and has gone to another level this season. He was vaguely competent beforehand.
Kick off 4.30pm.
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