It's been easy for many City fans to overlook the importance of tonight's game with Saturday in mind. With the results going the way they did over the weekend however, the importance of picking up three points has been underlined, especially with Spurs only having one competition on which to focus their attention.
We will go to Anfield tonight bubbling with confidence after our 5-0 thrashing of Sunderland, I can't see a similar result tonight though and see Mancini changing the shape of the team slightly. Gareth Barry will be pushing for a start against the team he almost joined before becoming a blue, possibly at the expense of Adam Johnson who could drop to the bench after a long spell out and his revealed importance to the balance of the team.
Pablo Zabaleta's return to the squad is a big positive, whilst Boyata looked extremely comfortable last week I think Caroll, Suarez and Merieles pose a much bigger threat.
Mario Balotelli should spearhead the attack with Tevez and Silva working impishly around him. The threat of Adam Johnson and Dzeko on the bench should be more than enough to worry Liverpool's depleted defence which is without both Daniel Agger and Glen Johnson.
Any excuse implying we have 'one eye on the cup final' should be banished immediately, this is an important game and will see us once again extend our lead on spurs going into the final games of the season. Until tomorrow morning, our league position and champions league football should be our main focus and we should attack Liverpool tonight knowing they are without some key players. The absence of Gerrard is slightly soured by the presence of Andy Caroll and particularly Louis Suarez who has looked very impressive since joining Liverpool.
I think if our spine of Kompany, De Jong and Tevez will provide a solid defensive platform from front to back which will limit Liverpool's attacking threat due to their lack or any real wingers. Dirk Kuyt doesn't have the pace to exploit Kolarov so keeping him as wide possible could prove beneficial.
As we have shown throughout the season, we have enough attacking threat to take on any team and I don't see tonight being an exception, with the right attitude and pure focus we could very well pick up all 3 points tonight.
Prediction - Liverpool 1 - 2 City - our attacking threat should be able to bail us out of situations such as tonight, the giant Caroll and nifty Suarez partnership could well cause us some problems but I think we'll offer a bit more going forward that they can handle.
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