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The 2018/2019 EPL season has approached its midway point and as usual, it has thrown us a lot of surprises and excitement. Big spenders like Fulham got no value for the money they spent in the summer while Manchester United have undoubtedly been the biggest disappointments of the season thus far.
The most intriguing aspect of the Premier League this season has to be the title race. Manchester City and Liverpool go head to head in a closely fought title race.
Manchester City were installed as heavy favorites to defend their EPL crown this season even before a ball was kicked owing to the absolutely dominating fashion in which they won the league last season.
Though they are playing well this season, one other team in the Premier League is ahead of them in the points table. With 48 points from 18 matches, Liverpool tops the table right now and are unbeaten so far.
Ahead of the busy festive period in England, we take a look at three factors which are in Liverpool's favor over Manchester City in this tightest of league races.
#3 Liverpool's superior defense
The Reds have always been high scoring, but series of calamitous errors from defenders and goalkeepers alike cost them points and titles.
Major cup finals, important league matches, and the games against lower opposition which they were expected to win, Liverpool's porous defense always proved to be their bane as they always posted high scoring matches with goals at both ends.
This season, however, has been a much different story, as Liverpool look as assured as ever at the back and currently boast the best defensive record in the league.
World record sums were expended to get both Virgil Van Dijk and Alisson Becker to Anfield, nobody can deny the impact both men have had on Liverpool's formerly shabby defense.
Virgil van Dijk has proved to be an absolute rock in the center of The Reds back line with his assured defending. On the other hand, Alisson has played his part between the sticks.
It is a well-known fact that great defenses win titles and with just seven goals conceded in 18 matches, Liverpool have by far the best defense in the league and this could ultimately prove to be the difference.
#2 Hunger and drive
City are the defending EPL champions, so in essence, what that means is that all members of the squad apart from Riyad Mahrez (who himself was a key member of Leicester's fairytale EPL win in 2016) were all a part of City's triumph last season.
Looking further into the squad, you find that players like Aguero, David Silva, and Vincent Kompany are all multiple time winners of the Premier League who have been there and done that.
By contrast, a cursory look at Liverpool's squad shows a team of players who apart from Milner and Sturridge have not won the EPL. As a matter of fact, only a handful of players at Liverpool know what it feels like to win a trophy of any kind.
Now while this naïveté might be seen as being a disadvantage in the run-in, it should also be remembered that Liverpool as a club are without league glory since 1990.
Hunger, drive, and desire are three of the most important factors to becoming successful in any field, and football is no exception. The drive for personal glory as well as etching their names into the annals of Liverpool history as the team that finally ended Anfield's long wait for PL glory could be the defining factor which pushes the Liverpool players to go the extra mile and finish above City.
#1 Prioritizing the UCL
When Manchester City was taken over by Sheikh Mansour in 2008, there was a plan for the club to achieve domestic and continental dominance.
Money running into billions of pounds have been spent on paying personnel, stadium and academy upgrades and while the first objective has been achieved, it is in the second where they have faltered. For all of the world-class players Manchester City have signed, they are yet to win the UEFA Champions League title.
They are still some way behind Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, and Bayern Munich when it comes to European pedigree.
Till date, their best performance in the UCL is their semifinal appearance in 2016 where they were ousted by the eventual champions Real Madrid and that led to the appointment of Pep Guardiola.
Pep is universally regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time and arguably the best in the world at the moment and his enviable records and trophy haul. However, the Catalan has faced rather unjust criticisms of being a manager who takes the easy way out by accepting jobs at established clubs.
Guardiola is without a UCL trophy since the second one he won at Barcelona way back in 2011. Since then, it has been seven years of near misses and flat out failures as the 46-year-old has failed to replicate his success on the continent with Bayern and Man City.
In his two full seasons at City, Pep has failed to make it to the semifinals. Falling rather shockingly to Monaco at the round of 16 stage in 2016/17 before being whitewashed by Liverpool at the quarterfinals last season.
While Manchester City would undoubtedly want to triumph in the EPL, they are likely more inclined to place a higher priority on winning the UCL. This higher preference for UCL triumph on both a collective level as a club and individually for Guardiola is one which could see them lose out to Liverpool.
