Manchester City know they must keep themselves in a position to pounce if Premier League title favorites Liverpool slip up when they play the first of their two games in hand against bottom club Sunderland today.
Liverpool’s 3-2 victory at Anfield on Sunday allowed the Reds to stay clear at the top of the table and extend their advantage over third-placed City to seven points.
That will be an unbridgeable gap if Liverpool win their remaining four games to lift their first top-flight championship since 1989-1990, but Brendan Rodgers’ side still have to face title rivals Chelsea, giving a glimmer of hope to City, who would finish top if Liverpool fail to win just one of their games and City take a maximum 18 points.
Photo: AFP
Four of City’s remaining fixtures are at home, starting against a Sunderland side which has failed to win in their last nine games and who were beaten by City in the final of the League Cup at the start of last month.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini has vowed to fight to the end and defender Martin Demichelis believes City still have time to overhaul Liverpool after pushing the leaders all the way in Sunday’s epic encounter on Merseyside.
“We showed real fight until the end. No one left the stadium feeling like they were champions. We have plenty of matches left,” Demichelis said. “Unfortunately, we couldn’t get a more positive result, but we can still bring something positive before the end of the league. We have seen in football that they can make mistakes. Hopefully, we can win the rest of our matches and expect some mistakes from Liverpool.”
Photo: Reuters
City captain Vincent Kompany, whose error led to Liverpool’s winning goal from Philippe Coutinho, reiterated the “never give up” message and is expected to be fit to face Sunderland after an injury scare prior to the match at Anfield.
Midfielder Yaya Toure looks unlikely to play after limping off at Liverpool with a groin injury, but City should still have enough to beat a Sunderland team which is in free fall and heading toward the Championship at an alarming pace.
It is a remarkable decline for a club that reached the final of the League Cup and even manager Gus Poyet sounds defeatist as he considers what awaits them against City.
Poyet has adopted a fatalistic attitude after seeing the outcome of games dictated so often by red cards and own-goals.
“What is going to happen to us that is new on Wednesday? We can have a bet,” Poyet said.
Poyet’s own future at the club has come under scrutiny for the first time following Sunderland’s 1-0 defeat by Everton at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
The Uruguayan is reluctant to embark on the massive rebuilding job that is clearly needed at Sunderland, where the contracts of eight players end this summer.
At least half the team expected to start against City will not be at the club next season and that can only be a positive for their opponents in the remainder of the Premier League season.
One player likely still to be there is striker Connor Wickham.
“We won’t give up,” Wickham said. “We have 23 players in the dressing room who want to stay up, who want to be here and do well for the team.”
You would not expect Wickham to say anything else, of course, but form suggests the trip to City will simply be another stride toward relegation.
Japan’s Shohei Ohtani is the record-breaking baseball “superhuman” following in the footsteps of the legendary Babe Ruth who has also earned comparisons to US sporting greats Michael Jordan and Tom Brady. Not since Ruth a century ago has there been a baseball player capable of both pitching and hitting at the top level. The 30-year-old’s performances with the Los Angeles Dodgers have consolidated his position as a baseball legend in the making, and a national icon in his native Japan. He continues to find new ways to amaze, this year becoming the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases
More than 180 years of horse racing came to an end in Singapore on Saturday, as the Singapore Turf Club hosted its final race day before its track is handed back to the Singaporean government to provide land for new homes. Under an overcast sky, the air-conditioned VIP boxes were full of enthusiasts, socialites and expats, while the grounds and betting halls below hosted mostly older-generation punters. The sun broke through for the last race, the last-ever Grand Singapore Gold Cup. The winner, South African jockey Muzi Yeni, echoed a feeling of loss shared by many on the day. “I’d
PREDICTION: Last week, when Yu’s father made a wrong turn to the former champions’ parking lot, he said that his son could park there after this year With back-to-back birdies on the 18th hole, Kevin Yu fulfilled his driving range-owning dad’s prediction that he would win the Sanderson Farms Championship and become Taiwan’s third golfer to claim a US PGA Tour title. The Taoyuan-born 26-year-old, who represented Taiwan in the Olympic golf at Paris, saw off Californian Beau Hossler in a playoff at the Country Club of Jackson, Mississippi, on Sunday. Having drained a 15-foot putt to claw his way into the playoff, Yu rolled in from five feet on the first extra hole, ensuring he joined Chen Tze-chung (LA Open in 1987) and Pan Cheng-tsung (RBC
LeBron James and eldest son Bronny James claimed a piece of NBA history on Sunday after making their long-awaited first appearance alongside each other for the Los Angeles Lakers. The duo appeared together at the start of the second quarter in the Lakers’ 118-114 preseason defeat to the Phoenix Suns in Palm Desert, east of Los Angeles. While LeBron James impressed with 19 points in just 16 minutes and 20 seconds on court before sitting out the second half, Bronny found the going harder with zero points in just over 13 minutes on court. The younger James attempted just one
RSS