Manchester City hosted Liverpool at the Etihad in a clash between the third-placed City and fourth-placed Liverpool in the Premier League. With Chelsea on the way to win the league, the remaining teams in the top six are now engaged in a five-way battle for the final three spots in the top four that guarantees Champions League qualification.
Also Read: EPL 2016/17: Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool, Player Ratings
Liverpool opened the scoring in the second half through James Milner’s ice-cool penalty against his former club. However, City responded with Sergio Aguero scoring to equalise and the match ended in a draw with both teams missing sitters late on.
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Here are the 5 talking points from the match.
#1 Manchester City start strong
Manchester City were guilty of not turning up until the 2nd half in their painful Champions League exit in the round of 16 at the hands of AS Monaco. If the Citizens were expected to carry on the dourness to this match, then they proved their doubters wrong as they started on the front-foot from the get go and constantly looked to threaten Liverpool, who once again were uninspired in the opening exchanges, similar to last week against Burnley.
Former Manchester City player and Liverpool captain for the day, James Milner, was up for the battle from kick-off as his tussle with Raheem Sterling began right away. The Liverpool makeshift left-back did well to deal with Sterling, including a crucial clearance late into the 1st half off the English winger to prevent a sure-shot goal.
Leroy Sane’s fine form continued as he troubled Nathaniel Clyne constantly and flashed a number of balls across the box only for the ball to either meet grass or a Liverpool player. City started positively, played slicker and looked the most likely of the two sides to score.
#2 Liverpool grow into the game
Despite City starting the game well, they were unable to register a single shot on target and eventually Liverpool got back into the game. Emre Can continued his impressive form in the holding role as he constantly pressed, recovered balls and was strong in his challenges. His tenacity coupled with Sadio Mane’s pace started to push City, with Mane leaving Nicolas Otamendi for dead with his pace in the middle of the 1st half.
Eventually, Liverpool started to dominate the midfield with Adam Lallana’s pressing, Georginio Wijnaldum’s dynamism and the Liverpool centre-back duo of Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan holding strong against Manchester City’s attacking riches. Liverpool started creating chances and City goalkeeper Willy Caballero was brought into play making good saves, including a save from a thumping volley from Lallana.
However, Pep Guardiola’s decision to play Fernandinho in the right-back position to provide solidarity was not tested as Philippe Coutinho’s poor form continued. It was summed up when he cut in on his favoured right-foot inside the box with Fernandinho beaten, but he could not even test the goalkeeper from his usual scoring position. John Stones made a crucial intervention close to half-time as the teams went in goalless at the break.
#3 Both teams burst into life in the second-half
After a somewhat tepid 1st half in terms of shots on target and goals, as is the norm in this fixture, Gael Clichy conceded a penalty for fouling Roberto Firmino and the game burst into life. James Milner sent the Caballero the wrong way and slotted his second penalty in Manchester this season to give Liverpool the lead. Another chance fell to Firmino through a superb reverse pass from Coutinho but the Brazilian could not beat Caballero who was immense in the game.
City made Liverpool pay for that miss as Kevin De Bruyne combined with David Silva to deliver a superb ball for Aguero to tap in, with the goal being similar to Ashley Barnes’ goal that Liverpool conceded last week against Burnley. This was Aguero’s fifth consecutive goal against Liverpool at the Etihad, showing his record against the Reds. That equaliser further opened up the game as City once again found their rhythm and started stringing passes together.
Yaya Toure was constantly hustled by Lallana along with the Liverpool midfield and was eventually replaced by Bacary Sagna, who slotted in his natural right-back position and Fernandinho moved to central midfield. Despite both teams continuing to threaten, neither could find the back of the net.
#4 Missed sitters prevent advantage in top 4 race
As the match wore on, both teams had one clear-cut chance each to score and possibly seal a massive three points against a direct rival for a top four spot. First, it was Liverpool’s Adam Lallana who scuffed a simple tap-in at the end of a superb counter from Jurgen Klopp’s side after Roberto Firmino set him up. Guardiola replaced Sane with Fernando to gain a hold on Liverpool’s counter-attacks and to prevent his side from losing.
City created another chance with De Bruyne finding form in the later stages of the game. It fell to the one man Guardiola would have wanted it to fall to in Sergio Aguero and all that was needed was for the Argentine to shoot on target. However, he smashed it over the bar from close range in what was an astonishing miss and eventually both teams settled for a draw.
In the process, James Milner crossed Darius Vassell’s 46-match unbeaten record where the latter has never lost a game in which he scored. Milner’s goal and the draw took his tally to 37 wins and 10 draws in 47 games, thereby creating a new record.
The result meant that City sit in third place, one point ahead of Liverpool, with a game in hand on the Merseyside club, while Tottenham are two points ahead of City with a game in hand as well. Manchester United are four points behind Liverpool but the Red Devils have two games in hand making the fight for top four a very interesting one.
#5 Jurgen Klopp wins the top six managerial battle
Even before the season began, there was a lot of talk about this PL season being the World Championship of top managers with even Arsene Wenger agreeing to it.
Out of Antonio Conte, Jurgen Klopp, Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola, Arsene Wenger and Mauricio Pochettino, it is fair to say that Klopp has gegenpressed his way into the top of that mini-table with five wins and five draws in 10 games against the remaining five, thereby winning a psychological battle in this season as neither of the remaining teams are unbeaten in this mini-league.
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool have amassed 20 points from the fixtures, with Chelsea a distant second with 13 points, and the remaining teams picking up less than 10 points. However, Liverpool have picked up only 19 points in 10 games against the bottom six and this shows why Liverpool are in the current position, instead of challenging for the title despite their terrific record against their rivals.
