GLEN JOHNSON: Brand Ambassador and former Liverpool defender Glen Johnson is backing his old club to do the business this weekend and also chats about the time he had to go in goals!
A point would be a good result for Liverpool
It’s obviously the biggest game of the season so far this weekend as Liverpool take on Manchester City and, even though Jurgen Klopp and his side will be doing everything they can to win, I’m pretty sure they’d take a point. Any week that City don’t close the gap is a good week, so a point would be more than acceptable. They can beat anyone on their day as we’ve seen numerous times since Pep Guardiola took over and it clearly won’t be easy for Liverpool, but the position the Reds have got themselves in means they can afford to leave Anfield with a draw.
If Liverpool were to win on Sunday, it would mean they are nine points clear at the top of the Premier League which is a pretty sizeable gap, regardless of the fact we’re only in November. However, as we saw last season with Liverpool during the Christmas period, every team can go through a dip in form, but there’s no doubt that a Liverpool win would be a massive dent in City’s title hopes. It would send a real message to the league if they do win because if City can’t beat them, who can? They’d look virtually unstoppable.
Mane has become Liverpool’s most influential player
In Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane, Liverpool have one of the most potent attacking trios in world football, but I do think Mane over the last 18 months or so has really established himself as the key man. He’s so explosive, creates chances out of nothing and scores really important goals, which is why he’s been nominated for the Ballon d’Or. At the moment, alongside Virgil Van Dijk, he is the player Klopp really can’t afford to lose.
In terms of the Ballon d’Or, his form has got to see him have a chance. There aren’t many players over the past year that have been as consistently good as him and he’d certainly be in the top-three for me. He’s obviously up against the likes of Van Dijk and Lionel Messi, but he’s surely got to be in the running.
Things look bleak for Emery and Arsenal
It was another very disappointing result in the Europa League and things are looking pretty bleak for Arsenal at the moment. It reminds me a bit of Tottenham a few months ago and things have got much better for them, so it does look tricky for Unai Emery. The only respite for the manager is they are still fifth in the league, but I don’t think he’s many bad results away from losing his job.
The dressing room won’t be a very happy place and I’ve been there and it’s not much fun for anyone. There are going to be a lot of underlying issues within the squad and it quite often takes a really small thing for arguments and rifts to start. It might not be very pretty, but quite often those arguments are needed in order for players to get things off their chests and to move on. It’s early in the season, so there’s still a long way to go, but they’ll need turn things around quickly.
When you’ve got players like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in your side and you’re not performing to the sort of level expected, these players are naturally going to be considering their futures. Top-quality strikers are very hard to come by and he’s proved he’s one of those, so if Arsenal’s struggles continue they’ll have a tough job keeping hold of him.
My days as a goalkeeper!
It’s always quite entertaining to see an outfield player go in goal like Kyle Walker did for Manchester City during the week. I had to do it against Newcastle during my spell at Chelsea and it wasn’t much fun! It’s an odd one because you’re used to certain situations in football and one of those isn’t going in goal. You don’t realise how big the goal is and it’s pretty impressive how easy keepers make it look. I did keep a clean sheet though so maybe I should have tried it a bit more!
Weekly Acca
Here are my selections for this week’s accumulator, where I think Liverpool will edge the big game on Sunday…
Chelsea 2-0 Crystal Palace
Tottenham 2-1 Sheffield United
Leicester 2-1 Arsenal
Man Utd 2-0 Brighton
Liverpool 1-0 Man City
Did you know that as well as checking the realtime prices on BETDAQ below – you can also log into your account and place your bets directly into BETDAQ from BETDAQ TIPS.
