Liverpool's win at Chelsea last weekend has set up a fascinating home showdown tomorrow with English Premier League leaders Manchester City in the biggest match of a weekend which also features Manchester United playing Newcastle tonight.
City have played only two of the big six during their 12-game unbeaten run in the league but they were away to the teams lying second and third and both resulted in breathtaking victories - 5-1 at Tottenham and 6-1 at Manchester United. More than anything else, the manner of those wins marked City as a changed team this season - with more attacking power and intent - and established them as title favourites.
But Liverpool, too, are improving - even if their progress has been masked and at times stalled by a lack of goals. As discussed here last week, Liverpool's form under Kenny Dalglish is excellent when they get on the score sheet and their victory at Chelsea took their record when scoring to 17 wins out of 25. They have lost only three of those games - all on the road - and that is one indicator that they are likely to be really competitive against City.
One consequence of City's more attacking outlook this season is that they have kept fewer clean sheets. They have conceded in 8 of their first 12 games, whereas last season they led the Premier League for clean sheets by shutting out the opposition in almost half of their matches.
This season Roberto Mancini has used his attacking armoury to outscore the opposition and worry less about keeping the door shut, with the results so far proving that the change of policy was a wise decision. But City have kept only one clean sheet in six away games and, despite the wide-margin victories in big-six clashes, have arguably been fortunate to win 3-2 at Bolton and QPR.
City's only dropped points this season came on the road when they allowed Fulham to fight back for a 2-2 draw, making it three away games out of six in which they have conceded two goals. That suggests Liverpool have reasonable prospects of scoring tomorrow.
