Manchester City and Liverpool football club are at it again.
A rivalry has been brewing among the two clubs for years now, and it very closely resonates with the Arsenal-United rivalry of the early 2000s.
It is always these two in the title race for the last 3-4 years. The rest are just pretenders.
In fact, in the last 4 seasons, there has been no other winner apart from Man City and Liverpool.
Even this title race appears to end with either a light blue ribbon or a red ribbon on the trophy. All thanks to Harry Kane’s sensational performance at the Etihad.
It was a fantastic Saturday in the Premier League, where the main fixture of the day lived up to all its glory and hype!
Before the start of the day, Liverpool found themselves 9 points behind league leaders Manchester City, so they simply had to win their game against Norwich to stay alive in the title race.
On the other hand, Manchester City who last lost a Premier League game somewhere in October were all set to host Tottenham Hotspur as the blockbuster fixture of the day.
So, let’s put both these games under the Microscope and draw conclusions on how the title race is actually a race now!
Liverpool stays alive
Liverpool was set to host Norwich on a Saturday afternoon at the Anfield.
From the on-set, it promised to be an easy victory for Klopp’s reds and although the scoreline would suggest the same, the game was anything like it.
Liverpool won the game 3-1, but it was much more competitive than the scoreline suggested. There were periods in the game where Norwich had the upper hand.
The first half finished 0-0, but anyone who watched the game can say that Norwich was giving Liverpool a tough competition.
Norwich then materialized the pressure they had created on the home side by taking an early lead in the second half. Be it via a wicked deflection, but as they say, a goal is a goal.
Now trailing behind Liverpool had to make a comeback to stay in the game as well as the title race.
That is exactly what they did.
Sadio Mane equalized in the 64th min and then Salah took the lead 3 min later. Their fresh, new winger Luis Diaz took the game completely away as he scored his first goal for Liverpool in the 81st min of the match.
Liverpool won their game and simply said, over to you Manchester City.
Harry Kane clutch
Harry Kane came to the Etihad and demonstrated to Manchester City why they need a world-class striker, and what a world-class striker Can do!
Tottenham coming off from the back of 3 consecutive defeats and Manchester City who last lost a Premier League game in October, looked like no match for one another.
Yet surprisingly Tottenham took an early lead. A sumptuous ball by Harry Kane and a perfectly timed run by Son opened Manchester City up.
Son once reaching the D-line squared the ball to Kulusevski who put the ball into the back of the net.
Man City did reply half an hour later as Gundogan scored from the spillage caused by Hugo Lloris.
In the second half, Spurs took the lead again as Harry Kane scored at the hour mark. Another counterattack and another Kane-Son goal combination did the trick.
It is destiny that there will always be a VAR element in play when these two sides meet, and that proved to be right yet again.
Harry Kane scored once more to make the scoreline 3-1 but the goal was chopped off, via VAR intervention.
In 90+1 min of the game, VAR awarded Manchester City a penalty for a handball.
Mahrez with all the pressure on his shoulders converted the penalty and the scoreline read, 2-2.
With 7 min added on, it looked like the league leaders will put a final thrust to try and win the game.
But rarely do football games follow a script.
Harry Kane converted a cross by heading the ball in the back of the net for Tottenham Hotspurs in 90+5 stoppage time and Tottenham win the game.
Pep shocked, Antonio Conte ecstatic.
Now with a game in hand, Liverpool could potentially cut down the gap to only 3 points if they win on Wednesday against Leeds.
Peter Dury perfectly summed up the weekend by saying,
“A procession will now become a race”
