Manchester City are looking to stop the bleeding of points, when they visit Burnley, today, in the opening of the 15th round of the Premier League, which sees tomorrow's Merseyside derby, between leaders Liverpool and their guests and neighbors Everton, and the visit of Jose Mourinho and his team Tottenham to his former Manchester United.
City are well aware that there is no room to waste any more points, especially in December, where there are always many games, where there are six stages in which the absence of the winter break, which is witnessing the rest of the European tournaments, in addition to a direct stage on January 1.
City have wasted five points in their last three games. After being six points behind leaders Liverpool, they found themselves third, 11 points behind the Reds, after losing to Jurgen Klopp's men (1-3) and stumbling against Newcastle. (2-2), three points behind Leicester City, who have six consecutive victories since falling to Liverpool (1-2), early last month before.
Manchester City will try to return to victory, and exploit Burnley's modesty to the big, where he lost to Liverpool, Leicester City, Chelsea and Arsenal, to tighten the screws on Leicester and maintain at least the three points difference, ahead of Chelsea fourth, and City will face five teams of nine Top in the ranking after his trip to face Burnley.
Spanish coach Josep Guardiola defended his players after a deadly draw against Newcastle. "Frankly, you have to see how the players ran, how they fought and how they tried to get to the goal," he said.
“We never give up,” he said. The team is still ready. this is what I feel. Of course, a draw is not a good result for us. It's good for Newcastle. "I know it doesn't matter, but I have to analyze the performance, and the performance was good." `` I don't think how many games we have to win, '' Guardiola said, referring to a record 18 consecutive wins in 2017-2018 and 14 successive wins last season. We should just try to win the next game. Last season, when we were at this time, we didn't talk about the Premier League title and the number of matches to be won. It wasn't about that. Now, let's go back and try to beat Burnley. ”
Everton never tasted victory at Anfield
Liverpool will start December with the Merseyside derby against Everton tomorrow.
The derby matches are of great significance between the two teams, although the long-term word for Liverpool, as Everton did not taste the taste of victory in the «Anfield» only once in the last 19 years, and was in September 1999 (1 - zero), and achieved only six wins In the last 51 encounters with Liverpool (at home and abroad). Last season, Liverpool narrowly finished with a fierce goal from Belgian Devok Origi in the sixth minute of stoppage time, before falling into a goalless draw at Goodison Park. Liverpool play 10 games this month, including six in the league, one in the Champions League, one in the League Cup, and two in the Club World Cup in Doha. Liverpool have had a fantastic season so far, the only one not to have lost a taste of the league so far, but have struggled to win since the beginning of September, the only match to be won by more than one goal against Manchester City (3-1), in On October 10, they beat Leicester City, Tottenham, Aston Villa, Crystal Palace and Brighton 2-1, and the latter settled it with 10 men, following the dismissal of Brazilian goalkeeper Alison Baker.
Coach Klopp praised his players after the victory over Brighton. "Their great desire to win is incredible."
In the absence of Allison and injured compatriot Fabinho, Liverpool will try to capitalize on the shaky morale of their neighbors, who have lost the last two games and have won just four wins this season.
Liverpool are well aware that any stumbling will reduce the gap between them and direct chasing the 2016 champion Leicester, who is waiting for an easy match against home bottom club Watford, who sacked his Spanish coach, Kiki Sanchez Flores, the day after the defeat to Southampton 1-2, last Saturday.
Mourinho in the hospitality «demons»
Mourinho is the guest of his former club Manchester United, who sacked him 11 months ago to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Mourinho landed in Manchester, at a time when the "Red Devils" suffer, especially after two disappointing draws, led to the decline to ninth, which was exploited by the Portuguese coach, to jump his team to fifth place.
Mourinho said: "When I received the team was 12 points away from fourth place, qualifying for the Champions League, and now we are only six points."
"I don't want to think about it. I just want to play games, because if we think too much about it, we will feel pressure, because we want to compete in the continental competition next season."
Mourinho, who led Tottenham to the final of the continental competition by beating Olympiakos (4-2), is waiting for another firefight against his former Chelsea team three weeks later and the focus will be on the match to see what Mourinho will do against the Blues' traditional rivals.
Chelsea's chance to reconcile his fans
Chelsea have a chance to reconcile with their fans after a 1-0 defeat at West Ham when they host Aston Villa 15.
Chelsea have lost their last two games and are now under pressure from neighbors Tottenham, who have risen to fifth place thanks to three consecutive victories in various competitions led by new coach Mourinho, the successor of Argentine Mauricio Bocetinho, dismissed the post because of disappointing results.
Round 15 matches
Today:
Crystal Palace - Bournemouth
Burnley - Man City
Tomorrow:
Chelsea - Aston Villa
Man United - Tottenham
Southampton - Norwich
Leicester - Watford
Wolverhampton - West Ham
Liverpool - Everton
Thursday:
Sheffield - Newcastle
Arsenal - Brighton