A repeat of their remarkable 2015-16 Premier League triumph would not be at 5,000-1 but Leicester have credentials and a chance to enhance them significantly at Liverpool next SundayLeicester’s title triumph of 2015‑16, the one that had bookmakers begging punters with 5,000-1 betting slips to cash out early, is still being used as proof that anything can happen in the Premier League.If a ragbag of players who were nearly relegated the previous season can win the league, guided by a charming but perennially underachieving manager whose appointment had been greeted with scepticism by chief Leicester cheerleader Gary Lineker, then it simply cannot be true that the English top flight is skewed massively towards the money clubs in the Champions League...
Liverpool’s fast, attacking start threatened to overwhelm Manchester City but the home side found a responseThis was a tantalising and, at times, oddly melancholy game of football. For an hour at the Etihad Manchester City and Liverpool produced an exhibition of finely-wrought escapism, one of those moments when football just draws the curtains on the rest of the world and basks in its own heat and light.That they did so was a credit to the tunnel vision intensity of the players. And also to an engrossing bare knuckle tactical duel played out between Jürgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola in the opening half hour. Related: Kevin De Bruyne drags penalty wide in Manchester City's draw with Liverpool Related: Manchester City 1-1...
With players now quicker and stronger, the champions can further expose Pep Guardiola’s misfiring side, whose ability to stop the opposition passing is waningSunday’s meeting of Manchester City and Liverpool is not just between the past two Premier League champions and the two favourites to win the title this season or even Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp, it is also a meeting of two different modes of pressing.The tactical centre of European football is shifting. While the four German sides lead or are level on points at the top of their Champions League groups, Spanish clubs are struggling. It is true Barcelona and Real Madrid have specific issues of politics and recruitment, but there is also something more fundamental that...
If City’s players are not bored of Guardiola, Sunday’s fascinating test against Liverpool would be a good point to show itWhen the history of this season comes to be written the meeting of Liverpool and Manchester City on Sunday might not be seen as decisive in the title race, as these two sides’ encounters have been in the recent past, but with the situations they find themselves in the match looks absolutely fascinating. There is pressure on both sides this season, City wanting to knock Liverpool off their perch and the champions desperate to raise the trophy again, hopefully with fans there to see it this time, and perhaps this weekend we will see who is coping with it the...
Liverpool centre-back remains a work in progress but his makeshift partnership with Fabinho just about kept Ajax out It was hardly a first touch that was going to inspire confidence. Barely 70 seconds had passed at the Amsterdam Arena when Joe Gomez took possession on the left-hand side of his penalty area. Attempting to shepherd the ball back to his goalkeeper, Gomez suddenly felt the breath of an Ajax forward at his shoulder and appeared to panic slightly, with Adrián required to sprint forward and smash the ball out for a throw-in, colliding with his 23-year-old teammate in the process.In the absence of the defensive colossus Virgil van Dijk it has fallen to the softly spoken south Londoner to step...