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Comparing Liverpool and Man City’s fixture difficulty in PL title race

  /  Stamfordblue

Liverpool and Manchester City have been English football's dominant forces in recent years and they are in another yet Premier League title battle.

After winning the league title with a record-breaking 100 points in 2017-18, City then retained the title by picking up 98 points in 2018-19.

Liverpool finished just one point behind City in 2018-19 and then finally ended their 30-year wait for a Premier League title in the following season.

But the Reds were plagued by injury problems in 2020-21 and City rediscovered their best form to bring the title back to the Etihad.

Pep Guardiola's side are currently six points clear at the top of the table but they have played a game more than Liverpool, who are in brilliant form.

“Every game will be similar [to Everton], for sure,” Guardiola said after City's 1-0 win at Goodison Park. “Everyone plays to survive, for the Europa League, for the Champions League, to be champions. Every game will be a battle.

“We have spoken about that. It is not the first time we have been in this situation and we learn from the past.

“If you want to be champions in the Premier League against this rival – Liverpool are not going to drop points – you have to do a job in nearly all the games.

“I don't know how it is going to finish, but we are going to try. Every game will be an incredibly tough battle and we have to face every game knowing if we drop points, it will be difficult to be champions.”

We've taken a look at which side has the more difficult upcoming fixtures – on paper at least.

Man City

Man Cty's remaining fixtures: Man Utd (H) (4th), Crystal Palace (A) (11th), Brighton (H) (10th), Burnley (A) (18th), Liverpool (H) (2nd), Wolves (A) (8th), Watford (H) (19th), Leeds (A) (16th), Newcastle (H) (14th), West Ham (A) (5th), Aston Villa (H) (13th)

The average league position of Man City's remaining opponents is 10.9 so they will fancy their chances of retaining the Premier League title.

They play four of the teams that are currently in the bottom seven and will be expecting to get 12 points out of 12 from those games.

But City don't have the best home record against Manchester United in recent years and away games against Crystal Palace, Wolves and West Ham are all potential banana skins.

The title race could also go down to the wire and their final game of the season is at home to Aston Villa, who are now managed by Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard.

Liverpool

Liverpool's remaining fixtures: West Ham (H) (5th), Brighton (A) (10th), Arsenal (A) (6th), Man Utd (H) (4th), Watford (H) (19th), Man City (A) (1st), Aston Villa (A) (13th), Everton (H) (17th), Newcastle (A) (14th), Tottenham (H) (7th), Southampton (A) (9th), Wolves (H) (8th)

The average league position of Liverpool's remaining opponents is 9.4 so they will need to be at their very best to overtake City before the end of the season.

Only four of their remaining 12 league games are against teams that are currently in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

They will also come up against Arsenal, Manchester United, Tottenham and West Ham, who are all competing for a place in the top four.

But some Liverpool players will already be thinking about their trip to the Etihad at the start of April as that could either save or derail their title bid.