Liverpool have made some major moves in the transfer window so far, making one huge purchase and then selling for an even higher price. They’ll resume the Premier League season on Sunday when they host the leaders from Manchester City, who might still be in the market to improve their team just yet.
Manchester City
City’s last league match came at home on January 2nd, when they beat Watford 3-1 at home behind goals from Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero, while Watford’s Christian Kabasele scored an own goal. Since then, City dropped Burnley 4-1 in the FA Cup as Aguero netted a pair, with Leroy Sane and Bernardo Silva adding singles, and they also won 2-1 at home over Bristol City in the first leg of the EFL Cup semifinals as Aguero and Kevin De Bruyne scored. Aguero has been on quite the roll as of late, but City are still looking to add some attacking power in the form of Arsenal’s Alexis Sanchez, who is rumored to be on the way to Manchester this weekend. That would be a huge addition for City because when he is on, Sanchez can be one of the top 5-10 players in the Premier League.
Liverpool
Liverpool broke the world record for a defender as they paid $101.4 million to Southampton to Virgil van Dijk, who promptly scored the winner in a 2-1 home win over rival Everton in the FA Cup; James Milner also scored from the penalty spot. Liverpool, who prior to that had won 2-1 at Burnley in the league on January 1st thanks to goals from Sadio Mane and Ragnar Klavan, then made that back and then some. They finally sold Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona for an initial $143.4 million, but it could rise to $192 million with various bonuses. Liverpool now has to find someone to replace Coutinho even though they still have a lot of talent up front with the like of Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino, along with Mane. However, Coutinho is both a playmaker and a goalscorer, and Liverpool will find him very difficult to replace.
Outlook
Manchester City are the favorites away from home at +115, while Liverpool are rated at +200 and a draw comes in at +275. Liverpool have won five and two of their last 11 meetings with Manchester City, who trounced Liverpool 5-0 at home on September 9th as Aguero scored, while Sane and Gabriel Jesus netted two goals each. However, four of those goals came after Mane was sent off with a red card in the 37th minute. Liverpool can’t afford to have another mistake like that or City will run wild on them, but it will also be interesting to see how Liverpool’s attack moves forward without Coutinho. They could sit back and try to hit City on the counterattack, but Liverpool are a hard-pressing team that wants the ball, and also, how will van Dijk handle going up against the likes of Aguero and Sterling? This will be a massive test for Liverpool.
EPL Betting Pick: Manchester City
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