Manchester City's 2-3 loss to Tottenham on Saturday opened the way for Liverpool to close the gap with Premier League leaders City, and ignite the double conflict at the top after Chelsea moved away from the competition.

Tottenham suspended a 15-match streak in which City were unbeaten, led by coach Pep Guardiola, and stuck at 63 points in the lead, 6 points behind Liverpool, who can reduce the teams to only 3 points next Wednesday when they face Leeds United in a postponed match from the 19th round of the Premier League.

Liverpool's victory over Leeds is settled on paper, given that the match was held at its fortified Anfield stadium with its large fans, and Leeds is not in its best condition currently, and the first leg ended with an easy 3-0 victory for the Reds.

The start of the competition between City and Liverpool

And it will be the beginning of the real competition at the top of the Premier League after Liverpool's victory over Leeds, where City and the Reds will be equal in the number of matches, and the difference is only 3 points.

If we assume that the two teams will win all their upcoming matches, the match that may decide the title will be the direct confrontation between the two teams scheduled for Round 32 on the ninth of next April at the Etihad Stadium, knowing that the first leg ended in a 2-2 draw at Anfield.

Liverpool can, in the event of a victory over City, outperform them on the goal difference in the standings, as they are currently two goals behind them, and they can make up for this difference against Leeds next Wednesday.

But City's victory means that it is close to crowning its favorite title in recent years, especially if its defeat against Tottenham on Saturday is not repeated.

Liverpool matches

Until the Liverpool match with City, the Reds will play at home, respectively, with Leeds, West Ham, Manchester United and Watford, while they will play away from home with Brighton and Arsenal.

There are 3 matches that represent a danger to the Liverpool project to catch up with City, the most prominent of which is the West Ham match on the fifth of next March, because this team is living in its best period and is competing for the golden square, as it currently occupies fifth place with 42 points, and it also won the first leg of the Reds 3 -2 After a match that witnessed catastrophic mistakes from the Reds players.

Also, the confrontations of Manchester United (the fourth) and Arsenal (the sixth) will not be a picnic for Liverpool, although they were defeated in the first leg with two big results 5-0 and 4-0, respectively, especially as the two teams are striving to obtain the qualification for the Champions League by ending the season in the Premier League’s semi-finals. .

Manchester City matches

Meanwhile, Manchester City will play at home until Liverpool face it with Manchester United and Brighton, respectively, and will face Everton, Crystal Palace and Burnley outside the home.

In addition to the danger of facing Liverpool on City's ambition for the title, it is expected that the Crystal Palace match will be difficult for the leaders, not only because Palace defeated them at the Etihad Stadium in the first leg 2-0, but also because the match will be held at Selhurst Park, making the atmosphere difficult for City.

The expected difficulty of the match increases Crystal Palace's ambition to improve its position in the standings table (it currently occupies 13th place with 26 points).

City also faces its traditional rival, Manchester United, in the famous Manchester derby, which always witnesses excitement, knowing that City succeeded in resolving the match at Old Trafford in his favour, 2-0.

Liverpool and City have weapons that make the struggle at the top equal, as the two teams are currently among the strongest in Europe and not only in England, and the best evidence is their return home with two precious victories in the Champions League final price round.

Liverpool beat Italian champions Inter Milan 2-0, while City beat Sporting Lisbon 5-0.

Liverpool has an offensive arsenal that is almost the most effective and dangerous in the world today, led by Egyptian star Mohamed Salah, the Premier League's top scorer so far with 17 goals, his colleague and runner-up Diego Jota (12 goals), and Senegalese star Sadio Mane (9 goals).

Newcomer Luis Diaz, who scored his first goal for Liverpool against Norwich City on Saturday, also joined and received great praise from coach Eugen Klopp.

But Liverpool sometimes faces a failure in this terrible attacking machine, which cost it 6 draws that enabled City to move away from the top, and its defense went through difficult times and caused many naive goals, most notably against West Ham.

On the other hand, Manchester City relies on team play and player rotation policy, and for this reason there is no player from it competing for the top scorer.

Raheem Sterling is City's top scorer in the Premier League with 10 goals, followed by Riyad Mahrez with 9 goals.

  • Former international referee