Will Pep stop the Invincibles?

Preliminary decision in the title race or is it still the beginning of a race to catch up? The fact is: With a win, Liverpool could increase the gap to champions Manchester City to ten points. “We are hungry,” announced Liverpool coach Jürgen Klopp before the duel with his long-time adversary Pep Guardiola. A win – and the Reds’ first championship since 1990 would be within their grasp. For Klopp, this would be the crowning achievement of his coaching career.

Liverpool still without defeat Jürgen Klopp's team has survived the previous 20 rounds without defeat and has won all of the last nine league games. So far, only one team has managed to get through a Premier League season undefeated: the Arsenal team at the time, better known as “The Invincibles”, achieved this in the 2003/2004 season with numerous superstars such as Patrick Viera and Thierry Henry , Dennis Bergkamp or Jens Lehmann.

Bad omen for Liverpool? Manchester City also went through the season unbeaten until January last year before suffering a defeat at Anfield Road around this time. Guardiola: “We are fighting against the best team in Europe” City coach Pep Guardiola is therefore pushing the role of favorite towards Liverpool before the game: “The gap is big. If we leave points behind, it's over. After all, we're fighting against the best team in Europe at the moment." Klopp doesn't want to hear about that and immediately returned the compliments: "For me, the opponent is still the best team in the world."

Pep Guardiola has had little to be happy about in recent weeks. © APA/afp / GLYN KIRK

Klopp with a good record against “Pep” But Klopp knows how to beat Guardiola's possession machine. In 15 duels with the Spaniard he won eight wins and two draws; in England he only lost one of seven meetings with the ex-Bayern coach. City fans still have unpleasant memories of the two victories in the quarter-finals of the Champions League last season.

It is the duel of superlatives: best offense (City) against best defense (Liverpool), both teams scored an outstanding 2018 points in the 88 calendar year. Both clubs performed so consistently that Guardiola hardly believes that Liverpool will be weak: “They will still lose points, but not many. If we want to stay there until the end, we have to win our games.” At the beginning of December, Manchester was still leading the table before suffering three defeats from the last five games – and Klopp’s team was already ahead.

City with personnel concerns before the top game The Citizens are hoping for a return from Kevin De Bruyne, who was recently missing due to muscular problems. Other top performers such as David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Fernandinho only recently returned from injury breaks and are not yet at 100 percent. In contrast, Liverpool can practically draw on everything they have. The expected lineups: Manchester City (4-1-4-1): Ederson, Walker, Stones, Laporte, Danilo, Fernandinho, Sterling, Bernardo Silva, David Silva, Sané, Agüero.

Liverpool (4-3-3): Allison, Alexander-Arnold, Lovren, Van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Fabinho, Wijnaldum, Salah, Mane, Firmino. The table SP G U V TV P 1. Liverpool FC 20 17 3 0 48:8 54 2.Tottenham 21 16 0 5 46:21 48 3.Manchester City 20 15 2 3 54:16 47 4.Chelsea FC 21 13 5 3 38:16 44 5. Arsenal FC 21 12 5 4 46:31 41 6. Manchester Utd. 21 11 5 5 43:32 38 7. Leicester City 21 9 4 8 25:23 31 8. Watford FC 21 8 5 8 30:31 29 9. Wolverhampton 21 8 5 8 23:25 29 10. West Ham Utd. 21 8 4 9 29:32 28 11. Everton FC 21 7 6 8 31:31 27 12. Bournemouth 21 8 3 10 31:40 27 13. Brighton 21 7 5 9 24:29 26 14. Crystal Palace 21 6 4 11 19:26 22 15. Newcastle Utd. 21 4 6 11 15:29 18 16. Burnley FC 21 5 3 13 21:42 18 17. Cardiff City 21 5 3 13 19:41 18 18. Southampton FC 21 3 7 11 21:38 16 19. Fulham FC 21 3 5 13 19:47 14 20. Huddersfield Town 21 2 4 15 13:37 10

GB Premier League International	SP	TV	P
1. Arsenal FC	30	72:24	68
2. Liverpool FC	29	67:27	67
3.Manchester City	30	67:29	67
4. Aston Villa	31	63:46	59
5.Tottenham	30	62:44	57
6. Manchester Utd.	29	40:40	48
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Will Pep stop the Invincibles?

Showdown in Manchester: The “Christmas Period” in the Premier League ends with a big hit at 21 p.m. Manchester City host Liverpool and are under considerable pressure.

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