Related items

• Man City v Liverpool: Preview and prediction

  Liverpool may be no threat to Manchester City in the title race this season, but they could derail the champions' hopes of a treble in Saturday's match at the Etihad Stadium.

  That is the fear of Pep Guardiola, who still thinks highly of a Reds side struggling for consistency this season.

  City need to win to at least temporarily close the gap to leaders Arsenal, while Liverpool are on the outside of the Champions League chase looking in.

  That idea would have been alien to these two teams last year as they went toe-to-toe for the title, and memories of previous mammoth clashes are fresh in Guardiola's mind.

  The City boss, who said his "opinion doesn't change for one season of ups and downs", explained: "For one game, absolutely, they can beat everyone, like we can beat everyone. One game is one game."

  As City can focus on Arsenal alone in the league, Liverpool's situation is rather more complicated.

  They are seven points behind fourth-placed Tottenham with two games in hand but also five shy of Newcastle United, who have played the same number of games in fifth.

  Liverpool follow a trip to City by facing Chelsea and Arsenal next week.

  "It's a super important game," said Jurgen Klopp. "That's the one thing not different to all the other years.

  "We know it's a massive game, a massive week coming up. For tomorrow, they deserve all the attention – we can't think about the other games.

  "It is like a Champions League week. I'm super excited."

  PLAYERS TO WATCH

  Manchester City – Kevin De Bruyne

  While Haaland was out of action in the international break, De Bruyne was on top form for Belgium, putting Germany to the sword earlier this week with a goal and two assists. He will have a key role to play against City, who have played more through balls than any other team (64), while Liverpool are joint-fourth for the most through balls played against them (48). De Bruyne leads all players with 21 through balls.

  Liverpool – Mohamed Salah

  Salah loves playing against City, only scoring more than his 10 goals in these matches when facing Manchester United (12). Indeed, he has already netted in three separate matches against Guardiola's side this season, on target in each of their meetings in the Premier League, Community Shield and EFL Cup. Ian Rush was the last last Liverpool player to score in four different games against an opponent in the same campaign, netting in five clashes with Everton in 1986-87.

  MATCH PREDICTION – MAN CITY WIN

  Liverpool are hoping to do the league double over City for just the second time in the past 17 seasons, but that previous home-and-away success in 2015-16 included their sole victory at the Etihad Stadium in their most recent 13 league visits.

  This is not a season in which they appear likely to buck a trend away from home, having earned just 12 points from 13 games on the road. Having earned 30 points at Anfield, theirs is the biggest difference between home and away points in the division.

  The Reds have also failed to score in six of those away games, their most across a whole league season since eight in 2011-12, and another blank would leave them at risk of a third straight defeat without scoring in all competitions for the first time since October 2009.

  OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

  Man City - 50.8 per cent

  Liverpool - 22.8 per cent

  Draw - 26.4 per cent

• 'We will see' – Pep waiting to make Haaland call ahead of City-Liverpool

  Erling Haaland is still recovering from his groin injury, with Pep Guardiola saying a final decision on his fitness for this weekend would be made later on Friday.

  Haaland has enjoyed an astonishing first season at Manchester City, scoring 42 goals in all competitions – comfortably the most of any player in Europe's top five leagues.

  But his momentum was checked heading into the international break by an injury that kept the forward from linking up with Norway.

  City have a huge game against Liverpool on Saturday and are hopeful Haaland will be back, although Guardiola was eager to take his time with that call.

  "Erling is recovering," the manager said. "We have the last training session and we will see how he feels."

  Guardiola, who added Phil Foden would be out for "two or three weeks" following appendix surgery, was asked if he would risk Haaland if he was not convinced he was fully fit.

  The City boss was happy to trust the 22-year-old's judgement, but he is also confident his side would cope without their superstar striker.

  In the Premier League, Haaland has scored 28 goals, making up 42 per cent of City's total this term and earning 20 points. All three are high marks for a City player in a single season.

  "The doctors and especially the players will decide," Guardiola said. "How does he feel? Yesterday I spoke with him and he feels good. But we will see, we will see what happens.

  "We have scored a lot of goals this season, and he's scored an incredible amount of goals, but in the past we also scored a lot of goals.

  "Since we were here, and with Roberto Mancini and [Manuel] Pellegrini, always Man City was a team that scored a lot of goals in the season – with different players, different strikers.

  "They scored a lot of goals, which is what we will try to do until the end of the season."

  City have scored the second-most goals across Europe in all competitions this season, with their 109 trailing Bayern Munich's 112. They are the only two teams to reach three figures.

• Azeem Rafiq tells cricket to 'implement change' after Yorkshire racism scandal

  Azeem Rafiq urged cricket to "understand the extent of its problems and address them" after a hearing into allegations of racism and discrimination at Yorkshire saw a number of charges upheld.

  Former Yorkshire batter Michael Vaughan, who had a distinguished career as an Ashes-winning England captain, appeared at the hearing and was cleared of the accusations against him.

  However, Gary Ballance and the club itself admitted charges they faced prior to a hearing at the start of March, and a number of fellow former Yorkshire players had cases against them proved.

  The charges brought by the England and Wales Cricket board (ECB) were heard by its cricket discipline commission (CDC) at the start of March, and not all aspects were proved.

  However, each of Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, John Blain, Richard Pyrah and Andrew Gale had at least one charge upheld against them. They chose not to appear at the disciplinary panel hearing.

  Former spin bowler Rafiq blew the whistle on racism at Yorkshire in 2020 and welcomed Friday's outcome announcement.

  Rafiq said: "Charges against seven of the eight defendants, including the widespread use of the 'P' word, have been upheld by the CDC today.

  "This comes in addition to the other reports, panels and inquiries that found I and others suffered racial harassment and bullying while at Yorkshire.

  "The issue has never been about individuals but the game as a whole. Cricket needs to understand the extent of its problems and address them.

  "Hopefully, the structures of the game can now be rebuilt and institutionalised racism ended for good. It's time to reflect, learn and implement change."

  Vaughan described the proceedings as "an inappropriate, inadequate and backwards step".

  He added: "One of many reasons why I hold that view is because CDC proceedings are adversarial. They invite claim and counterclaim. They invite those involved to accuse each other of untruths or of lying."

  Vaughan said there were "no winners" from the process – "and there are better ways – there have to be better ways – for cricket to move forward positively and effectively".

  He said the case against him had "at times... brought me to the brink of falling out of love with cricket".

  "I won't address here the toll that it has taken on me and my family," Vaughan added, "but I have no doubt that it has also been incredibly stressful for all of the others concerned. I hope that for them and for cricket, an inclusive healing process can now begin."