#2 Luck in the remaining fixtures
As mentioned earlier, Manchester City has won the Carabao Cup and is still challenging for FA Cup, Premier League and UEFA Champions League while Liverpool is active only in the latter two. Liverpool can play a maximum of 17 matches this season while that number can rise to 20 for Man City. Three extra matches at this stage of the season could prove to be a significant factor in the title race. Both the teams have some tricky fixtures ahead of them.
Liverpool faces Everton away in the Merseyside derby on matchday 29. Then, they face a daunting task against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena on 14 March. After that, they play host to a tough team in Tottenham on matchday 32 and then to Chelsea on matchday 34.
On 13 March, Man City host Schalke 04 in the second leg of Round of 16. Then, they face Swansea City in the FA Cup quarter-finals. If they win that match, they will have more matches to play. In the Premier League, they have back to back tricky fixtures at the end of April. First up on matchday 34, they play Tottenham at home in which could be an exciting encounter. In their next match, they travel to Old Trafford for the Manchester Derby. Both these matches could define their season.
Both the clubs would hope that luck is on their side in terms of results, injuries and suspensions. An injury to star players like Aguero, De Bruyne, Salah, Mane, Firmino could derail their entire campaign.
Assuming both of them go deep in the Champions League, they would want to avoid potential heavyweights like Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, PSG and so on. However, if they are lucky enough, they could face relatively easy opponents in the form of Porto, Roma, Dortmund, Lyon and so on. Depending on these fixtures, they will plan the rest of the season.
Luck could very well play an important role in deciding the Premier League title.