Premier League Stats
Very hard to read into these head-to-head stats. Where overall nos. are obviously skewed in their favour mostly going back to the pre-takeover era, but even if you look at the last ten years it's a weird one to explain. While we haven't won away for donkey's years, there are also those 5-0 and 4-0 wins we dished out at home and the ones that really mattered (the 2-1 in 2019).
The stats that matter though are that we might not have won the battles with them individually but we have almost always won the wars ... 2014, 2018 and 2019 ... and the way table stands this year as well the result of this game might be insignificant in the overall title race (more on that in a later section below).
Their form was woeful up until last week when they have all of a sudden picked up some big results going into this weekend. Although form doesn't usually count for much in these big games as both teams are always up for it.
The table below does not include tonight's games of both teams against Burnley and Brighton, but I will update these tables at some point later on tonight (or tomorrow morning).
UPDATED TABLE BELOW NOW (Including both games tonight):
The Sliced Bread
Remember when Van Dijk joined Liverpool how the pundits on TV and journalists in papers were gushing over what a Rolls Royce of a defender Liverpool have got and how he was all that ... oh well, I can't even bring myself to re-write the phrases that were being invented to describe him at the time. Five, ten, twenty games in and it was just becoming unbearable ... I'm sure you have heard some of it because even if you didn't listen to talkSport or subscribe to Sky/BT or didn't read any of the UK papers, you still couldn't avoid it because it was spilling over onto main (non-sports) news and where not. I am sure Norwegians, Chinese and Japanese had their own versions of the same going on or wherever the cult fans were the click-baiters jumped on that bandwagon everywhere.
At the time I genuinely thought that it was maybe a shift in football perceptions taking place at large. Where only the strikers or creative midfielders were thought of as gamechangers, this perception was finally changing and the importance of defenders (especially as leaders in teams) was getting noticed and they were about to get their due credit. I was waiting for all this to shine a new light on none other than the original Rolls Royce of defenders and leaders - Vincent Jean Mpoy Kompany - after he lifted two back-to-back league titles and in the process also picked every other domestic trophy available along the way ... Oh!
OK, maybe I misunderstood ... all that praise was reserved or due for someone new joining a club, and not someone who has already been there forever ... right? Maybe it had to do with how a new signing impacts a club? ... Well, enter Ruben Dias this season then ... surely he's not only matched the Van Dijk arrival (if you look at first five, ten or twenty games for each), but surpassed that in whichever way you dissect it ... but now that I am sitting here trying to write an introduction to the game ahead this weekend I can't even remember reading any such articles praising Dias as a signing of the season? Actually, I just googled "signing of the season" and all I can find on first page of search results is about someone called Jota or something ...
Anyway, facts are facts ... and here they are ...
What's most impressive if you compare the two isn't even in these stats above though ... When VVD joined Liverpool, he was already at Southampton, already a Premier League player for two and a half seasons ... and another two and half seasons at Celtic before that. He was already well-hardened by our weather and very familiar with our league ... while Dias has only ever known the sunny Portugal till he got here. That and the fact that he's three years younger (than VVD was at the time of joining that lot) ...
It doesn't really matter the hype that cult generates and as we were told in no uncertain terms ... if Van Dijk was the greatest thing since sliced bread, then I guess we must have found the sliced bread itself!
Pre-Match Thoughts
Sorry for getting a little side-tracked by the whole Dias v Van Dijk debate that's been raging on social media in last few weeks ... but given we're playing them this weekend, thought it's a good time to address that. I know one of them isn't even going to play at the weekend ... but still the game is going to be about the two defensive units.
Their front three that weren't firing in January have probably found some sort of form back just in time for this game ... having won their last two games, both with a score line of 3-1 away in London at Spurs and West Ham (against traditionally solid Mourinho and Moyes' defences) and I have no doubt when they play later tonight at home, Brighton's style of play will probably allow them to further their growing confidence before this weekend.
Our troubles up front with missing strikers for most of the season are well documented and now the untimely loss of Kevin De Bruyne (our creator in chief - and simply the best midfielder in the world at present), only adds to the challenges for us in that department.
So this game really is going to be decided by whether their injury ridden (or newly signed) defence can hold up to our makeshift front-line ... or whether our new-found solid defensive unit can hold off the (so-called) best front three in the world. Well, if you can answer that honestly, there in lies the result ... we are going to win here. Easy! ... or at the very least come away with a draw. **
** Ref permitting, obviously :)
The Bigger Picture
Let's break down the implication of this game on the title race ... it is a six pointer of course, but not a make-or-break for us as it is for them ...
Earlier in the season when the two teams met, it felt like both sat back a bit towards the end and shook an invisible hand with neither team wanting to lose ground on the opponent so early on. You'd argue that our game plan was just fine had KdB not missed that penalty so uncharacteristically; we'd have gone on and won all three points. This time however if Pep goes there with a more pragmatic approach and comes back with a draw, it won't be so bad in the bigger scheme of things.
After our win tonight, Liverpool are currently seven points behind us having played the same no. of games (21). They are playing Brighton tonight as I write this so assuming they win that being at home and having found some form recently, they'd go into the weekend with four points behind us at 43. Our record January run has put us in such commanding position that even if they win on the weekend, we'd still leave there top of the table (by a point) and still have a game in hand.
I have worked out all the scenarios below that will explain how the table could shape up post this game ... and depending on Liverpool's result later tonight:
SEE AN UPDATED SCENARIOS CHART on PAGE 8 (after Liverpool's loss to Brighton tonight):
A win there would obviously be the best result for us and put a dent in their title aspirations ... a draw would still keep us ahead (especially with a game in hand as well) ... and actually even a loss won't be the end of the world for us and the whole hoopla that'll generate for them reminds me of this bit Martin Blackburn (Sun) narrated right after Vinny lifted our last title.
"I had a good friend who was at Liverpool for their game against Wolves that day. After we had won and we’d celebrated, I rang him to ask how their crowd had reacted when Brighton took the lead against us. He told me it was like a party inside the ground and some of their supporters were crying in the stands saying, ‘We’re going to do it’. When I heard that, I realized it was worth us having a scare just to spoil their day that little bit." ~Vincent Kompany
Match Prediction
Liverpool 0 (Ref 2) - City 2
I said at the start that we win the wars and are not too bothered about these mini-battles along the way ... and why should we? If we go on and win this year's league as well ... and I strongly believe that we will (irrespective of the result here); it'd be five titles for us out of the last ten ... not like once in thirty years or something.
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