MrExcalibur100

Luiz with his pointless vertical long balls again that hardly ever work. It's so much better when he hits them diagonally.

Victor Moses unaware of Danny Rose there.

Costa is so easy to play against when he drops deep. Can't see a pass. Lacks a fair bit of technique to hold on to the ball

Nice start. We look comfortable in possession so far.

That's poor from Hazard. He had time to control that before shooting.

Game time bitches!

I hope I'm wrong and Matic deals with their pressing and he's able to have a great game btw. I'm sure Conte has done his extensive homework on dealing with their high press.

There's a difference between being decent enough passers and being able to deal with a high press. Matic doesn't think quickly on his feet anywhere near the same as Fabregas. Matic looks like a donkey any time he's pressurized.

Alternatively, if this could be an open game and say both teams have an equal amount of possession, we will win by virtue of our superior attacking players. A draw is an acceptable result in this game. Liverpool failed to take their chance and if we draw, it's back to 6 points with them having to play Man United next away from home.

With Matic next to Kante, we're going to have a serious problem passing out from the back with the way they're going to press us. That will have a negative effect in our attacking play as Hazard and Costa could struggle to get on the ball, or get the ball in good positions.

Fabregas or Matic needs to drop deeper to help counter-balance their press. Too many times, our ball-passing central midfielder pushes up when one of our centre-backs is looking for the forward outless pass and it causes us massive problems in building our attacks. Look at the Stoke game for reference. I'm in a bit of a quandary as to whether I want to see Fab or Matic start. Last time Matic played against Spurs, he was embarrassed and his inablity to cope with being pressed was one of the biggest problems we faced trying to pass out from the back in that 1st half. He only marginally improved in the 2nd half. Fabregas deals with being pressed better due to his faster football brain and ability to get rid of the ball quicker. Though starting him means we'll be less defensively solid? At least I think, because Matic's recent form is not inspiring.

I concur. And Liverpool go to Man United next right? If we have no serious injuries, the title could be ours. At least I seriously hope so.

I just watched the game again and the major problem we had in the 1st half was pretty clear. Neither Kanter nor Cesc dropped deep to recieve the ball from our centre backs when we were trying to pass out from the back. They both pushed up expecting either Cahill or Luiz to initiate our build up play. There was such a huge gap between our centre-backs and central midfielders. Fabregas with all his experience should have made the adjustment in the half. He's particularly guilty of that.

I don't understand why he's always so reluctant to drop deeper and demand the ball from our centre backs when they are clearly looking for an outlet pass. I watched the 1st half vs Stoke again and the gap between our defenders and midfield was huge when we tried to pass out from the back. If Fabregas can just drop deeper to provide a passing option to them, that will be appreciated.

Conversely, if Liverpool drop points in their next match just 48 hours from now, albeit against a crap Sunderland team........ It's a bit of a moot point really. We just have to keep on winning. They can drop points in any game. So can we.

Conte 10 points ahead of "genius" Guardiola and 13 points ahead of the self-anointed Special One. Yep, the same one who brought this team to a level that really wasn't their level due to his "fantastic work".

Yeah, the title race is now a two-horse race between us and those cunts.

Toure is like a pregnant woman out there. You just have to laugh. He makes Fabregas look like Kante.

I get were you're coming from, on paper, City obviously have better players. ffs, they've spent almost 400 million on this squad in the last 2 seasons. Guardiola is severly underperforming regardless of how anyone slices it. Thing is though, Liverpool have one of the top 2 managers in the league and their playing style and intensity is so difficult for many teams to play against. With no European football distraction as well, they're a team that can keep on winning games till the end. I hope for this game to end in a draw.

Guardiola's team has no deep-lying playmaker. No one to dictate their possession from deep central areas. Maybe he should swap De Bruyne and Yaya Toure.

Mcmanaman should quit punditry and become a manager. He apparently knows so much about tactics and everything. Such a fucking arrogant wanker that guy.

Pretty uninspiring game so far.

You hate City more than Liverpool and you're rooting for them? Ewwww.

McManaman is so annoying to listen to. Always moaning about anything.

1-0 Wiljnaldum. Great header. No pressure on him for the header.