Man City’s title defense on life support ahead of Liverpool match

Reigning Premier League champions Manchester City will host league leaders Liverpool on Sunday searching for victory that could resurrect their season, but perhaps without their most important player.

Striker Erling Haaland has 19 league goals this season, but he may not be healthy in time to try to add to his total.

Haaland, who sustained a knee injury late in City’s 4-0 win over Newcastle United last weekend, already missed the team’s 3-1 loss at Real Madrid on Wednesday in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League knockout round series. However, manager Pep Guardiola didn’t completely rule out the Norwegian marksman.

“Don’t know yet. (Saturday) we will know,” Guardiola said Friday. “It’s better to have Erling on the pitch. … Everybody is responsible for the good things and bad things for the team, but obviously with Erling we are better.”

Regardless, Manchester City (13-7-5, 44 points) did add some key reinforcements during the winter window, most notably Omar Marmoush, who scored a hat trick in the first half of the Newcastle win.

And while a miracle surge to catch Liverpool (18-1-7, 61 points) is unlikely, it wouldn’t be completely impossible with a win that would narrow the gap to 14 points and kept City with a match in hand.

Having received a bye to the UCL round of 16, Liverpool spent its midweek grappling to a 2-2 draw against Aston Villa in a fixture rescheduled from March 15 because of the Reds’ run to the Carabao Cup final.

Mohamed Salah opened the scoring with his 24th goal to reach his highest league total since he registered 32 during his 2017-18 debut Premier League campaign. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s 61st-minute tally leveled affairs for good.

However, a rearguard that began the season in such stalwart fashion under first-year boss Arne Slot has now conceded five goals in the last three matches while settling for only five points in that span.

Slot is also well aware that this version of City is a much improved one from that which the Reds defeated 2-0 in early December.

“I can see them coming back already if you look at the result against Newcastle,” Slot said. “So what you expect is what everybody expects if you go to the Etihad (Stadium) if you play against City. You have to suffer as well and work really hard to keep them away from your goal because they are so, so good in ball possession. But they face a strong team as well that hasn’t lost for 22 games (in the Premier League).”

–Field Level Media