Predicting the Premier League Champion: Man City vs. Liverpool showdown
Aside from the last season and the bizarre early form that ruled Liverpool out of the title race, it’s been a two-horse race between Man City and Liverpool. As the table begins to take shape, it looks like they could be the two that will battle it out right until the end of this year’s campaign.
A spirited Arsenal looks as if they won’t go out without a fight though, and there’s a strong possibility that they could be in the mix right up until the latter stages of the season – just as they were last year. Sports bookmakers believe it will be a three-horse race between these teams, and it will likely be a straight shootout to see who will be this year’s league winners.
Outright markets still attract a substantial audience of bettors in England and abroad. Live bet markets have helped to prop up and add further layers of profit to the industry, but the overall promise of the market continues to appeal to bettors as you can place bets on the move on your mobile app and cash out immediately during the game.
Can Liverpool break the City monopoly?
Well, they’ve done it once before. Jurgen Klopp has a point to prove against his old rival, especially after listening to rivals say the Reds were finished after finishing 22 points behind last year’s eventual champion – Manchester City. It looked as if they had run out of momentum. This year has marked a significant change in the Reds. While they might not be exhibiting the same sort of sizzling form that secured them the earliest-ever Premier League, they’re showing the sort of mentality that is grinding them out results in games they’re looking as if they might lose.
The clearest example of this involved the recent heroics against Fulham at Anfield. Another healthy dose of sortilege for the Merseysiders meant they went into the 85th minute down 3-2 and into the 88th minute up 4-3. Traditionally, this is a mark of champions, and while other teams might look for excuses, Klopp seems laser focused on correcting these wrongs and showing the league that the Reds 2020 Premier League win wasn’t just a flash in the pan for a club who hadn’t won it for decades, this never-say-die attitude that is the hallmark of champions. Arsenal performed a similar comeback in the dying embers of their game against relegation-threatened Luton Town when Declan Rice scoring in the dying moments of their nail-biting seven-goal thriller. However, never write off the chances of Arsenal doing an Arsenal and slipping up when it’s crunch time. Despite Aston Villa’s incredible run of home form, Arsenal would have wanted to pick up points in the game – but they were they defeated by the rich-in-form Aston Villa at Villa Park. While many Gooners might be thinking it is Groundhog Day watching their club crumble again, it’s not all doom and gloom. There is still an awfully long way to go in the season – City and Liverpool will also drop points between now and May, so there’s still plenty of reasons for Arsenal fans to be positive.
Traditionally, this type of mentality was something you’d see from Sir Alex Ferguson – and to a lesser extent – Jose Mourinho squads. However, the brutal truth is that their current crop is a far cry from the sort of standard Manchester United fans have become accustomed to throughout the 1990s, 2000s and early 2010s. As questions persist about their stars’ unhappiness, their traditional, biggest rivals Liverpool, are currently streets ahead of them, and it’s a gap that appears to be getting wider.
Pep’s City Machine – Have The Cracks Started To Show?
The relentless nature and consistent performance of Manchester City are two major reasons why sports betting companies still have them as the favourites for the title, even as Liverpool and Arsenal sit above them in the table. However, there’s no shying away from the fact that they have been below par – including against Spurs, and more recently against Aston Villa. The upcoming showdown against Liverpool has the potential to be a passing of the torch level game, or it could be a chance for Pep to reaffirm his generational dominance over Jurgen Klopp.
Conclusion – Who Will Come Out On Top; Will It Decide The League?
With the exception of last year – Liverpool have been the team that Guardiola has kept his eye on the most. The head-to-head games between the two North West giants has often decided where the league ends up since 2017. However, City will be optimistic that they can make their way through the current turbulence and retain their title, but Arsenal and Liverpool will have an appetite to derail this, and for the Reds, the upcoming head-to-head will be their best chance to turn this tide.
Barring any significant injuries, many pundits expect Man City to pip the other two over the finish line, especially if they can beat Liverpool. Given their recent slip ups against Tottenham Hotspur and Aston Villa, the bookies odds have shifted significantly, with the Merseyside club now favourite for the league.
With Liverpool picking up a point at the Etihad and grinding out last minute wins, there’ll be a lot of Kopites who are cautiously optimistic about their title chances this year and mirror the current attitude of the sports betting companies. Liverpool’s return fixture in March at the Etihad could be the title decider – but there’s still so much more to come from this year’s Premier Lague.
Arsenal still needs to travel to Anfield and the Etihad, and there’s a chance they’ll to come up short, especially if previous form and their historical mentality is anything to go by. Given that the Premiership is one of the top leagues in the world, there’s bound to be many more twists and turns before the season ends, nobody knows where they’ll take place or who will be top of the pile at the end of the season – and that’s why so much global interest in the English domestic game.