Liverpool v Man City live: Premier League champions host Pep Guardiola’s title contenders in Anfield showdown

Marc Guehi believes Manchester City can still land the title this season as he prepares to face the club that almost signed him.

City head to Liverpool on Sunday needing a victory to arrest a poor run of form and maintain hope of overhauling Premier League leaders Arsenal.

England defender Guehi, who moved to City from Crystal Palace for £20million in January, came close to joining the Reds last summer only for a move to collapse on deadline day.

Pep Guardiola has said he is grateful to Marc Guehi for answering Manchester City’s defensive injury crisis by joining in January rather than having his pick of clubs on a free transfer in the summer.

Guehi, a £20m signing, is set to face the club he could have joined on Sunday, as his move to Liverpool broke down with a few hours remaining of the summer transfer window.

Guardiola said that City did not bid when Liverpool made a £35m offer then, while the reigning Premier League champions opted not to match their rivals’ January offer.

Liverpool lost more Premier League games than any other club between matchday six and matchday 12, with six losses and one win. However, since matchday 13, no side has lost fewer games than the Reds (played 12, won five, drawn six and lost one).

Surprisingly, City are the only Premier League side in 2026 so far who have not conceded a single goal in the first half of a match, scoring six times themselves. However, they are also the only side who haven’t scored a second half goal yet, conceding six times.

Pep Guardiola has revealed he felt an immediate connection with his Manchester City assistant Pep Lijnders – but did plenty of research with former Liverpool players before hiring Jurgen Klopp’s long-time assistant manager.

Lijnders returns to Anfield on Sunday but by Guardiola’s side as part of City’s coaching team after taking a job at the Etihad Stadium last summer.

And Guardiola said he was an admirer of the work Lijnders and Klopp did together at Liverpool as he said he did his due diligence before hiring the Dutchman.

Liverpool have lost just one of their last 22 Premier League home games against Manchester City (W14 D7).

However, following the 3-0 win at the Etihad in November, City are hoping to complete their first league double over Liverpool since 1936/37.

Brighton face Crystal Palace in today’s other game in the Premier League, and that has just kicked off on the south coast.

That’s the penultimate game of the weekend, and here are the rest of the results from around the top flight:

Leeds United 3-1 Nottingham Forest

Manchester United 2-0 Tottenham

Arsenal 3-0 Sunderland

Wolves 1-3 Chelsea

Fulham 1-2 Everton

Burnley 0-2 West Ham

Bournemouth 1-1 Aston Villa

Newcastle 2-3 Brentford

Arne Slot said he was delighted Liverpool managed to sign Jeremy Jacquet as he admitted they are planning for life without captain Virgil van Dijk.

The French defender has been signed for an initial £55m and will arrive at Anfield in the summer while Liverpool have also tied up deals for three other young centre-backs, in 19-year-old Noah Adekoya, 18-year-old Mor Talla Ndiaye and 17-year-old Ifeanyi Ndukwe.

Van Dijk turns 35 in July and has a contract until 2027 but Slot believes the veteran, who has played 34 games already this season, could earn a new deal and extend his time at Anfield.

After the summer deadline day defined by the striker Liverpool bought and the defender they did not, the January transfer window ended with the centre-back they recruited and the right-back they did not.

The immediate problem for Arne Slot is that, while he acquired Alexander Isak, he is now injured and while Liverpool have just secured the signature of Jeremy Jacquet, he will not arrive until the summer. But Marc Guehi, who eluded Liverpool in September, will instead face them in the colours of Manchester City on Sunday. Lutsharel Geertruida, who excelled for Slot at Feyenoord, was targeted as an emergency addition, but it proved impossible to get him from RB Leipzig via Sunderland and he could be on the opposite side on Wednesday.

And so Dominik Szoboszlai, who played as a false nine against City a year ago, is likely to line up at right-back against them on Sunday. Liverpool have conducted their transfer business for the future, but not for the present. Slot may be one more defensive injury away from seeing Liverpool’s season condemned to disappointment. As he admitted, it is a task simply keeping his remaining options fit.

Liverpool's new signing Jeremy Jacquet has sustained a "serious" shoulder injury just days after agreeing a summer move to Anfield.

The 20-year-old fell awkwardly in the second half of Rennes’ 3-1 defeat to Lens in Ligue 1 and appeared in agony as he left the pitch.

"For Jeremy, it's his shoulder, and for Abdelhamid (Ait Boudlal, the other Rennes player injured) it's muscular," Rennes head coach Habib Beye said in his post-match interview.

Pep Guardiola may or may not be in the home straight but it takes him to the place that feels his final frontier. The Manchester City manager has a standard answer – “I have one more year [on my] contract” – about his future but there is the chance that this is his last trip to Anfield. It can seem to loom large in his thinking: there may be no away ground Guardiola references by name more.

There is a reason for that. Guardiola has been going there for almost a decade with City. He has only won once: in lockdown, in an empty ground, when perhaps Anfield was not really Anfield. When he was last there, Guardiola raised six fingers to the Liverpool supporters, one to denote each Premier League title he has won. The more famous meme is of Guardiola brandishing two and yelling “twice” in any direction. It was a reference to City’s penalty appeals rejected in that 2019 defeat. Anfield, it seemed, could leave him howling into the sky in frustration.