Manchester City find themselves in a unique and privileged situation.
With the Premier League all-but sewn up with eight games to play and one piece of silverware already secured in the Carabao Cup, Pep Guardiola can afford to put all his eggs in the Champions League basket.
In their bid to record a history treble, City have been handed Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in what is the first all-English tie in the competition since the 2010/11 season when Manchester United defeated Chelsea at this stage. Bettingtop10 website gives a predictions of Arsenal’s games that can be used for future matches.
Having avoided the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, Manchester City will be thrilled with being paired with Jurgen Klopp’s Reds at this stage of the competition, buoyed by the fact that they know that they can score freely against them having netted eight goals in their two Premier League meetings thus far.
While those goals have only been rewarded with three points from a possible six and Liverpool inflicting City’s first and only Premier League defeat of the season on them, they go into again game with the confidence that they will out score their opponents.
Sitting 16 points clear of Manchester United at the top of the table, City know that, realistically, they can wrap up a third Premier League title in the next two league games, the second of which is fittingly against their city rivals.
Boasting a squad filled to the brim with match-winning talent, it’s hard to envisage any eleven that Pep Guardiola could field being considered a ‘weakened’ side but with eight attempts on the horizon to secure the title, City could chose the upcoming games against Everton and Manchester United after the international break to afford some players a well-deserved rest.
The likes of Kyle Walker, David Silva and Sergio Aguero who have been virtual ever-presents for City of late could do with the extra few days of R&R so that they are at 100% by the time they travel to Anfield for the first-leg of their Champions League quarter-final.
Liverpool, on the other hand, cannot afford such luxuries. Heavily reliant on the performances of Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino in attack, the Reds cannot interchange them with a Bernardo Silva or a Raheem Sterling in the way that Manchester City can, only furthering the risk of fatigue and burnout.
Klopp’s men are still not certs to finish in the top four and qualify for next season’s Champions League considering the four-horse race for the three places behind City at the top of the table.
Throughout the Mansour era at the Etihad, which is closing in on it’s 10th anniversary, they have failed to deliver on the European stage but in Guardiola, they have found a manager who is a proven winner among Europe’s elite and their taking apart of the Premier League in the early months of the season has enabled them to completely prioritise the Champions League if need be, putting themselves in a great position to finally become Europe’s finest.
