Manchester City, Liverpool eye EPL title on dramatic final day

With one point separating the top two teams, the duel for Premier League crown goes down to the last round of fixtures.

FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Premier League - Manchester City v Liverpool
Manchester City beat Liverpool 2-1 when the sides faced off at Etihad Stadium, Manchester in January [File: Phil Noble/Reuters]

Liverpool are looking to make history by becoming the first English football club to overtake the Premier League leaders on the final day, as they challenge Manchester City’s title defence in a thrilling finish to the season.

With one point separating the two teams as they head into the last round of fixtures on Sunday, it is the eighth duel for the Premier League crown to go down to the final day.

Pep Guardiola’s City are favourites to retain the title as they travel to Brighton with a one-point lead over second-placed Liverpool, who face Wolves at Anfield.

City, on 95 points, have won their past 13 Premier League matches to wipe out a seven-point lead for Liverpool and are on the brink of becoming the first team to win successive titles since Manchester United in 2009.

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“I’m not going to change my opinion on what we have done, but I know we will be judged. We have to win,” Guardiola said as he prepared for the trip to a Brighton side who could prove troublesome.

“I don’t have to say anything to motivate them. I think my speech on Sunday will be zero,” the Spanish manager added

“They want to win the Premier League. From what I saw in the training sessions, they want to win it, knowing that we can lose it.”

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side, with 94 points, have recovered from a mid-season stumble to record eight straight victories and are agonisingly close to their first English top-flight title since 1990.

The team are riding high on confidence after reaching their second successive Champions League final courtesy of a stunning comeback from a three-goal first-leg deficit against Barcelona in Anfield last week.

“It was for sure one of the best moments in football history, not only Liverpool. But it has nothing to do with the weekend except that we should be confident,” said Klopp.

Liverpool beat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate in one of the greatest comeback in Champions League history [Phil Noble/Reuters]
Liverpool beat Barcelona 4-3 on aggregate in one of the greatest comeback in Champions League history [Phil Noble/Reuters]

‘World will be watching’

Hours before kick-off at 3pm local time (14:00 GMT), thousands of Liverpool fans turned up at the Anfield stadium for the final game against the Wolves. 

Liverpool have lost just once to City’s four defeats and were briefly seven points in front in January. 

The 18-time league winners face the scarcely credible scenario of ending the season with the third-highest points tally in Premier League history and a single defeat still missing out on the title.

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“This has been an extraordinary and unprecedented title race,” said Al Jazeera’s sports correspondent Lee Wellings, reporting from Anfield, Liverpool. “What you’ve never had before in the Premier League era is two teams reaching this level, maintaining that level and then taking it through to the last day.”

“The world will be watching,” he added. “There is a fascination about what’s going to happen at the end of this title race.”

Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has admitted his side need a miracle to end the team’s 29-year title drought. 

“City are a great team, but so are we. We’ve competed right to the very end,” Henderson said.

“Whoever gets it will deserve it. From our point of view, we couldn’t have done any more.”

Barring a spectacular swing in goal difference, Tottenham Hotspur will finish above Arsenal and mathematically seal the remaining Champions League spot alongside Chelsea.

Currently at sixth place, the highest 20-time League champion Manchester United can finish is fifth.

Wolves, in seventh place, cannot be caught and will earn a Europa League spot provided Watford do not beat City in the FA Cup final.

Sunday’s fixtures: (14:00 GMT)

Brighton v Manchester City

Burnley v Arsenal

Crystal Palace v Bournemouth

Fulham v Newcastle

Leicester v Chelsea

Liverpool v Wolves

Manchester United v Cardiff

Southampton v Huddersfield

Tottenham v Everton

Watford v West Ham

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies