TUESDAY

LIVERPOOL  2 - 1 TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

Battle Royale between England’s hottest Premier League properties

Traditionally, the pre-match anthem played at Anfield ahead of Liverpool games is the eternally powerful and forever tear-jerking ‘You’ll never walk alone.”

On Tuesday, ‘Shiny Happy People’ might be more apt, the highly irritating perky pop classic that is still not as bad as ‘Love Shack’ from the same era. Although that is not saying a lot.

Unlike the storm clouds of dissent to be found just 30 miles away over Manchester, Tuesday’s EFL game is a clash between the last two runners-up of the competition and also two sprightly, buoyant teams that are currently at the height of their powers. Under Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool have become one of the most watchable sides in the universe and a throwback to the Real Madrid ‘Galactico’ days - a team that tries to outscore their opponents.
 

Since the German took over Liverpool in a year ago, no side has been involved in Premier League games with more goals than Liverpool – 126 in total, 75 for and 51 against. This sees the Anfield club as serious candidates for a league title that has not been won in over a quarter of a century.

Standing in Liverpool’s path to write a new chapter in the club’s history is a team also blocking the way to an EFL Cup win – Tottenham Hotspur. The London club showed its traditional choking tendencies in the title battle with Leicester City last season, but appears to have come back even stronger this year rather than falling into a psychological slump.

WEDNESDAY

 MANCHESTER UNITED 1  MANCHESTER CITY 0

Clubs in crisis go head-to-head in Manchester derby

According to most sporting logic, the latest installment of the Manchester derby should have been a fearsome football-fest to decide who was the most omnipotent power on the planet. But the beautiful game doesn’t like to play by the rules, which explains why Atletico Madrid’s Juanfran ended up with an international career, for starters.

Wednesday’s EFL game has instead morphed into a duel to see which team is least in crisis. Pep Guardiola is on the brink of failing to win six matches in a row for the first time in his top-flight coaching career. Doubters prod powerfully that his one-dimensional tiki-taka Manchester City team works just fine when a supplicant opposition play ball, but become unstuck at any sign of resistance – especially in the Camp Nou.

But that is nothing compared to the apparent problems for Jose Mourinho, who has lost already at home to Manchester City in the Premier League this season and was just handed a humiliating drubbing by his former club Chelsea. But what looks like a footballing headache against City on paper might become a healing tonic if the cornered cat in Mourinho can clear United’s cobwebs with a cleansing win against their cross-city rivals.