Liverpool Welcome Sky Blues To Anfield

With the international break now over, Liverpool look to revamp there season once again after continuing a bad run of form via the draws picked up against Birmingham and Lyon.

Currently sitting 7th in the table on a total of 19 points Liverpool have the prospect of leap-frogging City and at best sealing 5th place on goal difference.

This is a key match in terms of the fight for a top four finish, with Liverpool's desire to continue to compete in the Champion's League and even more so the need for the revenue, City and their megabucks are looking to break into the top four and shake things up a bit

So will the cash of City compete with the tactics of Rafa?

You only have to look at Rafa's last few signings:
£17.5m – Glen Johnson,£17.1m – Alberto Aquilani, £2m, Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Daniel Ayala for £160,000 a total of just over £36m. Then glance over to Manchester City and realise that Robinho and Tevez were almost that alone.

Benitez not only faces a team with more cash, he also faces a team with more depth. Injuries at Anfield so far this season have been rife and for Saturday's clash the likes of Riera, Benayoun, Agger, Johnson, N'Gog and Gerrard still remain doubts although the boss is confident that Agger, Johnson and Gerrard will be available.

Torres & Aurelio however are deemed not to make an appearance. Torres is still suffering from a recurring problem whilst Aurelio is nursing a calf injury which kept him out of the Brazil – England fixture.

City have most options available, however Petrov has been ruled out and Robinho is still an uncertainty.

So what if we lay out the stats?
The Last 5 Meetings:
Man City 2 Liverpool 3
Liverpool 1 Man City 1
Liverpool 1 Man City 0
Man City 0 Liverpool 0
Man City 0 Liverpool 0

City have never managed to score more than two goals against Liverpool since the start of the Premier League.

Liverpool have an impressive record at home against City and have only lost on one occasion when they were beaten 2-1. Milan Baros was the goalscorer that day. The biggest ever victory in this head to head clash came when Liverpool put 6 past City in 1995.

With all this in mind, on paper it is a winnable fixture for Liverpool, especially with the home advantage. Form suggests otherwise and this could well be a score draw. With City picking up a lot of frustrating results themselves along with our current form it is clear that goals won't be a problem however maintaining a lead will be.

Liverpool cannot walk away with just the one point, it will simply not be satisfactory. With a must win game in the Champion's League midweek and then the Merseyside derby to follow Liverpool need to seal the three points as smoothly as possible.

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