Manchester City walks alone, Liverpool hopes to join

The biggest story in the football world today is that Real Madrid is now enjoying a strong 6pts lead at the top of La Liga in Spain. This after defending champions and currently second place Barcelona lost in the late game last night at Getafe.  Today we see the noisy neighbors Manchester City hoping to better that statistic in the English Premier League (EPL).

The opponents come in the form of Liverpool FC and the lead they will enjoy if they were to win is 7pts over defending champions Man utd. Both United and Arsenal dropped points yesterday as Chelsea turned their fortunes around.  What will today bring for the noisy neighbors of Manchester?



Manchester City's manager, Roberto Mancini after his loss to Napoli in mid-week maintained that his focus is primarily on the domestic league as his team does not have the requisite experience to win Europe's top club football prize.  City remain in the runnings non the less, although their fate is no longer in their hands.

The game today will see the two sides in the best recent form, although 12pts separate them before the start of the game.  Liverpool is coming off an impressive 2-1 victory over former champions Chelsea and will be certainly looking to continue their fine form.  They will want to play spoiler, and in the process solidify their claim for an automatic champions league spot at the very least.

We expect a very close game with intense battles, as Liverpool is high on confidence and Man City is wounded and dangerous.  We recall their trip to Napoli in mid-week, which went terribly wrong in the final stages.  The trip back to Manchester would have evoked some amount of fury and the desire to redeem their pride is intense.

Our predictions rest with a Man City victory on top of a close and exciting contest.  The teams' strategies will be tactical and technical with sporadic flair throughout the 90+ minutes.  Intensity will be high in the first stages with Suarez causing most trouble.  Johnson would be a smart addition to the starting lineup for Mancini as his creativity could be tapped near the start of the game. 

You can follow the game live at Sport Lemon TV