After ten Premier League games, Manchester City find themselves back in first place on the PL table after defeating Tottenham Hotspur away at Wembley Stadium on Monday night. Liverpool were the table toppers for just over 48 hours after they beat Cardiff City at Anfield on Saturday afternoon.
City and Liverpool remain the only two clubs who are undefeated in the League and they are currently tied on 26 points each after having won eight and drawn two out of the ten fixtures played thus far this season.
The Goal Numbers
Manchester City have scored 27 goals so far and conceded 3 goals, while Liverpool have scored 20 goals and conceded 4 goals.
To calculate the goal difference, the number of goals conceded is subtracted from the number of goals that have been scored in all league matches. Thusly, Manchester City’s goal difference is 24 and Liverpool’s is 16.
Although Chelsea have outscored Liverpool by four goals, they have conceded a total of seven and after winning seven games and drawing three, they are on 24 points in third place.
The Opponents So Far vs Manchester City
Manchester City have played three teams in the top half of the table and seven teams from the bottom half and four of those make up the bottom four teams of the Premier League table. City have scored a total of 16 goals against the bottom four teams.
- 12 August 2018: (4th) Arsenal 0 – 2 Manchester City
- 19 August 2018: City 6 – 1 Huddersfield (20th)
- 25 August 2018: (10th) Wolves 1 – 1 City
- 1 September 2018: City 2 – 1 Newcastle (19th)
- 15 September 2018: City 3 – 0 Fulham (18th)
- 22 September 2018: (17th) Cardiff 0 – 5 City
- 29 September 2018: City 2 – 0 Brighton (11th)
- 7 October 2018: (2nd) Liverpool 0 – 0 City
- 20 October 2018: City 5 – 0 Burnley (15th)
- 29 October 2018: (5th) Spurs 0 – 1 City
The Opponents So Far vs Liverpool
Liverpool have also played three teams from the top half of the table and seven from the bottom half but have only played two of the four teams who are at the bottom of the PL table.
- 12 August 2018: Liverpool 4 – 0 West Ham (13th)
- 20 August 2018: (14th) Crystal Palace 0 – 2 Liverpool
- 25 August 2018: Liverpool 1 – 0 Brighton (11th)
- 1 September 2018: (12th) Leicester 1 – 2 Liverpool
- 15 September 2018: (5th) Spurs 1 – 2 Liverpool
- 22 September 2018: (16th) Southampton 0 – 3 Liverpool
- 29 September 2018: (3rd) Chelsea 1 – 1 Liverpool
- 7 October 2018: Liverpool 0 – 0 Manchester City (1st)
- 20 October 2018: (20th) Huddersfield 0 – 1 Liverpool
- 27 October 2018: (17th) Cardiff 1 – 5 Liverpool
What Lies Ahead
Both Liverpool and Manchester City will play ten Premier League teams between now and the next fixture in which they play against one another and that takes place on 3 January 2019 at the Etihad Stadium. While there are those who are concerned about the goal difference between the Reds and first placed City, Jürgen Klopp is not.
Klopp has indicated that he will not be putting any undue pressure on his squad to score more goals and that the difference is not at the forefront of his mind at this stage of the season, and had this to say after the Cardiff match:
At this stage it makes no sense to think about things like that. You have to score as often as possible. Against Cardiff we have plus three but you can never lose respect for the other team. Of course, you want more and we will have will have games where we score more if we are greedy.
It is not too likely that it will happen again next week but it will happen from time to time if we stay in a good shape. We chase goals. That’s their nature, they want to score goals. You don’t have to put pressure on them.
First, we have to collect the most points and if we can do that then everything is fine. If not, we have to think differently.
Manchester City are still in the League Cup Competition and will play Fulham this Thursday, 1 November 2018. Thereafter, they will play Southampton on Sunday, 4 November 2018 in the Premier League.
Meanwhile, Liverpool will be travelling to London this weekend to take on Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Saturday, 3 November 2018. Here’s to the Reds scoring the way they usually would against Arsenal, however, let’s hope we don’t concede a single goal this time around!