This weekend, Liverpool will make an attempt to breach Manchester City’s Etihad fortress as Everton concentrates on surviving in the Premier League after receiving a harsh point deduction for breaking financial regulations.
Depending on outcomes elsewhere, Arsenal might win the table, while Tottenham will visit Aston Villa, a team with a lot of talent. After the international break, the English top flight resumes with these three talking points before the action.
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Liverpool aims to halt Man City’s dominance
Under Jurgen Klopp’s leadership, Liverpool has emerged as the only team to regularly challenge Manchester City in recent years, winning 10 of 23 games across all competitions.
The two teams engaged in thrilling matches in the 2018–19 and 2021/22 seasons, with City defeating their opponents by a mere point on both occasions. In 2020, the Reds won the league for the first time in thirty years.
However, Liverpool, who turned things around after a disappointing season, hasn’t triumphed in a league match at the Etihad since crushing City 4-1 in November 2015.
In comparison, the current champions have won 23 straight games in all competitions at home.
Erling Haaland, who has 49 goals in just 47 games, is one goal away from shattering the Premier League record for the fastest player to 50 goals. The Norwegian scored twice in City’s thrilling 4–4 draw with Chelsea earlier this month.
With 65 games to go, former Newcastle and Manchester United forward Andrew Cole holds the current record.
Will Everton be ignited by a 10-point penalty?
Everton, under Sean Dyche, had shown improvement recently, winning three of their previous five games and staying far out of the relegation zone.
However, they enter their encounter against Manchester United tied on four points with bottom club Burnley following last week’s 10-point deduction for breaking Premier League profitability and sustainability criteria.
Kevin Thelwell, the director of football at Everton, stated that the players would now be even more motivated as a result of their intense sense of unfairness at the “wholly disproportionate ruling.”
Due to the poor performance of the recently promoted teams, the nine-time English champions are only two points from safety despite the suspension.
After winning four of their last five league games, United has moved up to sixth place in the standings, but they still lack defensive coherence and have a blunt offensive approach.
Spurs play Villa in the hopes of stopping the rot.
After 10 games, Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou had the best start to a season by a new manager in Premier League history; however, the team’s losses in a row have knocked them out of first place.
Spurs were down 2-1 at Wolves, a game they were leading heading into stoppage time, and then lost 4-1 at Chelsea after being reduced to nine men.
Playmaker James Maddison, who has been so influential since joining in June, is out until the New Year due to an ankle injury, which is a headache for Postecoglou.
Aston Villa, who have continued to advance quickly under Unai Emery and are only one point behind fourth-place Spurs and three points off the top, is a team Postecoglou should be cautious about.
The Birmingham team won at home for the 13th time in a row earlier this month, defeating Fulham 3-1. That accomplishment was last accomplished 40 years ago.
However, they have only won two of their six road games, which is a less remarkable away record.