The Premier League title race could change hands three times before the weekend fixtures are out.
Liverpool host Crystal Palace at 2 pm on Sunday knowing three points would take the team to the top of the Premier League table.
Manchester City, for the first time since November, moved into top spot on Saturday after they thrashed Luton Town 5-1, but Arsenal could finish the weekend top of the tree if they beat Aston Villa.
Not only are the current champions two points ahead of Jurgen Klopp’s men, but they also have a better goal difference (+44 to +42).
Of course, Liverpool have the chance to change that against Palace, with the team’s reaction and performance under massive scrutiny after that shock defeat to Atalanta in the Europa League in midweek.
Nonetheless, Jeremy Doku scored and assisted for Manchester City against Luton to boost his team’s title chances and he was asked if he was thinking about goal difference after going past Liverpool’s.
The flying winger was honest enough to admit that ‘of course’ he was and how his team just want to ‘score as much as possible’, as he told Premier League Productions (13/04/24 at 5:10 pm).
Doku also added that his team has now ‘put pressure on’ Arsenal and Liverpool ahead of their respective games on Sunday.
Liverpool and Manchester City’s goal difference
“We know that we need some goals, especially for the title race, it can be important and, at the end, we are happy we could score five,” said Doku.
On if Man City are thinking about GD after going past Liverpool’s: “Yeah, of course. But as a player, you want to score as much as possible, even without the title race or anything else,” added Doku.
“We are just a team that wants to score goals because it is good for the head. Mentality is good. We are a team that always wants to score goals – I think now we are putting pressure (on Arsenal and Liverpool), but most importantly take it game by game, just focus on what we have to do, which is winning games, then we can look at what they do.”
After the horror show of midweek, the game against Palace is going to be about the reaction more than anything else.
Whilst changes were made in the Europa League, you suspect all the big guns will return and nothing but three points is going to be accepted here.
Yes, come the end of the campaign, goal difference might come into it. But that’s something Liverpool can’t think about now.
Palace are going to frustrate Liverpool at Anfield and do what they do best – hit opposition teams on the counter-attack.
Remember, they opened the scoring inside a few minutes against Manchester City last week, so that attacking threat is there.
