LONDON — Liverpool host Manchester City as the two teams who have shared the last seven Premier League titles (Man City six, Liverpool one) meet at one of the great stadiums in world sports.
Anfield is always hyped, but for this game, at this moment, the noise levels will be deafening.
Liverpool unexpectedly sit eight points clear of freefalling Man City heading into this game. A win for Liverpool would go a long way toward knocking four-time reigning champs City out of the title race and pushing the challengers a step closer to winning their second English league title in the last 35 years.
Here’s what you need to know before kickoff Sunday at 11 a.m. ET in a game that airs on USA Network and streams on nbc.com.
Has a change of manager given Liverpool the edge in the title race?
Replacing Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool was the equivalent of replacing Bill Belichick or Andy Reid, but Arne Slot has already somehow made Klopp, who won seven major trophies in his eight years and totally rebuilt the club back to a global power, look like an underachiever. Slot has won 15 of his first 17 games in all competitions. Liverpool are top of the Premier League and Champions League tables.
How have they done it?
There have been subtle tweaks to Klopp’s high-pressing “heavy metal football” with Slot’s rhythmic possession-based style intertwined.
Ryan Gravenberch and Curtis Jones are the new, unexpected, conductors in midfield. They drift around, cushion passes and deftly produce a killer pass. Klopp’s Liverpool is still there. But this Liverpool pick their moments when to put the throttle to the floor. Slot’s extra wrinkle has happened so quickly that most teams still don’t know how to react to it.
Liverpool is now a two-headed beast. They can lull you into a false sense of security by passing the ball around serenely, boring you into submission. But they can still turn up the pace when they want to. Preparing to play against them has become a dizzying multi-dimensional challenge and nobody can stop them.
Why are four-time reigning Premier League champions Man City in freefall?
Every dynasty has to fall. The superpower Pep Guardiola built appears to be crumbling.
The ongoing off-field charges loom large, but on the pitch Manchester City is without a win in their last six, losing five, and let a 3-0 lead slip against Feyenoord with 15 minutes to go on Tuesday to tie 3-3. They’ve lost three-straight Premier League games. City lost three league games all of last season as they became the first team in English soccer history to win four straight top-flight titles.
Why has this dramatic collapse happened so quickly? They’ve forgotten how to defend.
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City have conceded at least twice in each of their last six games — the first time that’s happened since May 1963. They’re leaking goals, struggling for confidence and aging superstars returning from injury are rusty.
Many point to the loss of exceptional defensive midfielder Rodri, who was just named the best player on the planet but suffered a season-ending knee injury in September. That is a big part of it but a team that has been imperious for so long shouldn’t capitulate like this because one player is out. A perfect storm of bad luck, big mistakes and father time is threatening to capsize what is arguably the greatest team in English soccer history.
Will superstar Mohamed Salah stay at Liverpool? Or lead a ‘Last Dance’ style exodus?
I was one of a handful of journalists to chat with Salah about his much-debated future last weekend as he scored twice late on to lead Liverpool to a comeback 3-2 win at Southampton.
“Well, we are almost in December and I haven’t received any offers yet to stay at the club. I’m probably more out than in,” Salah said. “I’m not going to retire soon so I’m just playing, focusing on the season and I’m trying to win the Premier League and hopefully the Champions League as well. I’m disappointed but we will see.”
Salah is Liverpool’s all-time leading Premier League goalscorer. He’s been sensational this season and the talisman in Liverpool’s return to being a perennial challenger for all of soccer’s top trophies.
But Salah, 32, is out of contract this summer, along with Liverpool’s captain Virgil van Dijk, 33, who is one of the best defenders of all-time, and Trent Alexander-Arnold, 26, one of the greatest products of Liverpool’s youth system who has won everything in the game along with Salah and Van Dijk over the past seven years. Salah is to Liverpool what Michael Jordan was to the Chicago Bulls. Van Dijk is Rodman. Alexander-Arnold is Pippen.
That these three stars are out of contract this summer, while Liverpool are having one of their best-ever starts to a season, is puzzling for most Liverpool fans.
Salah’s comments over the last week cranks up the pressure on Liverpool’s owners, the Fenway Sports Group (FSG) who also own the Boston Red Sox, to give these three superstars huge new contracts. That isn’t necessarily going to happen due to Liverpool’s wage structure, league-imposed spending limits, the age of Salah and Van Dijk, and the direction Michael Edwards, who has just returned to Liverpool as their new Chief Executive of Football, wants to go in.
Salah, and either Van Dijk or Alexander-Arnold, could still stay at Liverpool after adding a few more winners’ medals around their neck this season. But surely not all three. This situation has a very “Last Dance” feel about it.
