Dan Rimmer's Reds Blog

Post #10 - Barclays Premier League Preview - Man Utd v Liverpool

Like myself on this blog, Liverpool have been out of action and without football on the field for a fortnight but the return to Premier League duties lights up a fixture of real history and tradition. If you haven't yet guessed, even without looking at the title of the post, it is of course Manchester United against Liverpool and sixth against second. On any given year in the past you might expect that the second place team going into this one is United, but instead it is Liverpool who will take to the Old Trafford pitch knowing that they have taken 11 more points than their rivals who lie in sixth place in this campaign. 

This is the stage of the season when Domestic cup fixtures and European matches take a place more to the centre of it all, leaving teams that have failed to progress in other competitions without matches to play, causing a lot of confusion among fans. To try and put all of this simply and state the main facts, Manchester City, who the Reds are still to play at Anfield next month, have played only 26 league games - the joint lowest amount out of all of the sides along with Sunderland. Without trying to steer away from the match on Sunday, I mentioned previously that all eyes would be on City with the fixtures that they had. They beat Sunderland in the Capital One Cup Final the day after Liverpool's victory against Southampton as the redmen launched themselves into second place. But since City's victory over the Black Cats, it has been a real struggle that began with a shock FA Cup Quarter Final defeat at the hands of Wigan Athletic.

The Sky Blues were also dumped out of the UEFA Champions League by the almighty Barcelona, leaving many thinking that their League Cup win will be the only trophy in the Manchester side's cabinet this season. I say all this because many have also said that this title is theirs to lose because of the quality of the squad, but Reds fans could and should relish the possibility of the absence of Sergio Aguero from upcoming matches due to a hamstring problem. I also say all of this because Liverpool are certainly still in the title race and have proved that they have a good enough squad to compete with the rest. Man City are the team that require the most catch up, meaning that they are also under the most pressure, with their title rivals having putting points on the board since their last league match. 

But now to the Reds' next encounter against Manchester United, and to a potential fifth consecutive victory in the Barclays Premier League should the away side be successful at the weekend.

The lethal partnership of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge have lead some to think of the possibility of the deadly duo firing more goals between them than any other partnership in Premier League history, and beating Andy Cole and Peter Beardsley's 55 goals in one season. The main main up front for the Reds have netted 42 goals between them so far, and with only ten games to go, all fans of the Merseyside club should be open to the possibility of breaking records while trying to compete for the Premier League crown. I personally loved the optimism of Brendan Rodgers in Friday's Press Conference at Melwood, where he stated that his side had not beaten Tottenham and Southampton for a very long time away from home. The Northern Irishman now thinks that they have a real chance of their first victory at the home of the Red Devils since the 4-1 win in 2009 and go into the battle as favourites to win. 

"It'll be another marker for us. We've had a number of those statistics this year. We hadn't won away at Tottenham for quite a while and we performed there. We hadn't won at Southampton, which is a real tough away game, for 11 years and we won there. We'll take the very same approach going into this game."

Liverpool are almost perfect now as far as injuries go, as their were appearances for Lucas and Mamadou Sakho in the U21 fixture in midweek as BR gave the green light to the duo to return to the squad for the visit to United on Sunday, leaving only Jose Enrique out of the squad.

One has to congratulate the pair for their hard work in their recovery that was proven even more so by their wishes to stay behind and work that little bit harder whilst the rest of the first team took a break. The boss was the first to praise the two as he reiterated his delight in being able to easily prove that his team works hard and never look to take the easy way out. We can't forget the victory earlier on in the season at Anfield as Sturridge headed into the back of the net in the 1-0 victory back in September, and it is debatable whether Manchester United have improved in any way since then, despite a recent 3-0 victory against West Brom.

We also can't forget the Reds defeat at the hands of the Champions in the Capital One Cup Thid Round that saw the return of Luis Suarez from his 10 match suspension and saw the sparks starting to light up at the beginning of the season.

Will the Reds be able to get that fifth consecutive league victory against their rivals? Find out on Sunday in their 1.30pm Kick Off at Old Trafford, where the match will also be live on Sky Sports 1, Sky Sports 1 HD and Sky 3D.