Manchester City v Liverpool

Manchester City were labelled the ‘moral winners’ of Sunday’s FA Cup tie with Manchester United in some quarters, but the value of that is zero and they need to bounce back by taking a step towards Carling Cup glory here.

Vincent Kompany’s controversial sending off leaves them light in defence, with Kolo Toure in Africa for the Cup of Nations alongside his brother Yaya, so expect Stefan Savic to come in at centre-back. Yaya’s position is likely to be filled by Gareth Barry, who returns after suspension, while Mario Balotelli and Edin Dzeko are both struggling to be fit so Sergio Aguero could be asked to put in another shift. For Liverpool, Andy Carroll will likely lead the line once more with Luis Suarez serving the third of his eight-game suspension, and pressure will be on him to help boost an attack which has found the net on average once per game away from home in the league, comfortably the lowest ratio bar Stoke in the division’s top 10.

Stewart Downing’s off-field concerns place his involvement in doubt but Steven Gerrard should be approaching full fitness and will start. These sides met in the league just over a week ago with hosts City running out 3-0 winners, a scoreline which reflected Liverpool’s lack of creativity rather than a particularly noticeable class divide, and we may well see a repeat here. City responded to defeat at Chelsea by beating Arsenal earlier this season and one luckless defeat to their closest rivals in every sense does not mean that alarm-bells should or indeed will be ringing.

Roberto Mancini is nothing if not adept remaining realistic and even though the evens about City has gone, 20/21 looks an incorrect price. We argued that they should’ve been 4/6 to beat Liverpool in the league and stick to that belief here.

Verdict: Man City 2 Liverpool 0