Liverpool picked up yet another win in the Premier League – this time beating Aston Villa 2-1 despite trailing for most of the match.
The Reds went behind in the 21st minute and for the longest time, it looked like Villa would hold on and pick up all three points. But it was an 87th-minute strike from Andrew Robertson and then a 94th-minute winner from Sadio Mane which secured the three points for Liverpool and helped them maintain the six-point lead at the top of the table.
Man City too managed to keep their winning streak going by beating Southampton 2-1 and next weekend these two giants clash against each other at Anfield.
Liverpool are currently sitting at the top of the table and will remain there no matter what the result next Sunday but if City win then they will be able to cut the gap at the top to just three points.
And before taking on Liverpool in such a high-profile clash, City boss Pep Guardiola has earmarked Sadio Mane as the player who could cause them significant damage.
“Sometimes [Mane] is diving, sometimes he has this talent to score incredible goals in the last minute. He’s a talent,” Guardiola told Sky Sports[as reported by Goal].
“Another close Liverpool win? If it’s one time, two times, ‘we were lucky, we were lucky’, but it happened in the last two seasons many, many times – they have a special character to do that.
“We look at ourselves, we know which team we face, I think they have won 10 and drawn one… Next week we go to Anfield to try to play them.
“We played incredible from the first minute[vs the Saints] until the end. We created an incredible amount of chances. We were pressured but we did it,
“We kept our cool and we were patient. We know we will always get chances, it was important that we stayed calm ahead.
“I told them at half-time to keep going for it, to keep attacking. It is the only way. There was no space, it was almost impossible but we did it and that is why I am delighted.”
Sadio Mane has been key to Liverpool’s attack all throughout the current season but next weekend it will be more of a test for the Reds defence instead of their attackers.
Man City have a forward line that could cause trouble to any European powerhouse so if Liverpool can come out of this match unscarred then surely they will feel confident about winning the league.
