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Vincent Kompany calls for Manchester City to be ‘clinical’ against Liverpool

The City captain is looking forward to an “interesting” game at Anfield on Sunday.

Vincent Kompany feels there is little to choose between Manchester City and Liverpool as they prepare for this weekend’s top-of-the-table clash.

City and Liverpool, last season’s Premier League champions and beaten Champions League finalists respectively, have lived up to their billing as title favourites in the opening months of the current campaign.

City head to Anfield on Sunday as the leaders on goal difference from the Reds, with both sides still unbeaten.

City captain Kompany said: “In these kind of games you need a lot of things to come together – you need a little bit of luck, a good performance, you need to be clinical and defend well, and that goes for both teams.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side are still unbeaten in the Premier League
Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool side are still unbeaten in the Premier League this term (John Walton/PA)

“But it’s too close, I think, to actually make any big statements. That’s what makes this game so interesting.”

City thrashed Liverpool 5-0 early last season but the Merseysiders turned the tables in their next meeting to win 4-3 after scoring three times in a remarkable nine-minute spell at Anfield.

Liverpool then won both meetings between the clubs when they met again in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Kompany said: “I think if you take all four games of last season, including the home game, it’s a game of small margins. You look at each and every game and there’s not a lot of difference in terms of how the games happened.

“One game we were more efficient and scored five, the other game they scored three in, what, 15 minutes? And that’s how these games seem to go.

“The margin is so small between both teams and a lot of things happen in a very short period of time.”

City won the Premier League by a 19-point margin last season but Kompany is expecting the race to be much tighter this term.

The defender said: “I don’t agree with just putting City and Liverpool as title contenders. Chelsea have shown so much already this season. Arsenal, Tottenham are coming back.

“You’d think there’d be a bigger points gap by now but it’s not. I think most teams at the top are firing on all cylinders at this moment in time and this makes this league exciting.”

Pep Guardiola’s side go into the game on the back of a hard-fought Champions League win at Hoffenheim on Tuesday.

City conceded inside the opening minute but Sergio Aguero quickly replied and David Silva struck a winner three minutes from time. The result secured their first points in Group F after a surprise loss to Lyon in their opener.

Kompany said: “We needed to start this campaign. There’s a lot of pressure on these kind of games when you play away in the Champions League after you’ve lost at home. You couldn’t think of a worse situation to be in and we dealt with it.”

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2Arsenal301710355253061
3Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest30176750351557
4Chelsea30157854371752
5Manchester CityMan City30156957401751
6Newcastle UnitedNewcastle29155949391050
7Aston Villa3013984445-148
8Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton30121174845347
9Fulham3012994440445
10Bournemouth301281049381144
11Brentford30125135147441
12Crystal Palace29101093734340
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd30107133741-437
14Tottenham HotspurSpurs301041655441134
15Everton30713103237-534
16West Ham UnitedWest Ham3097143350-1734
17Wolverhampton WanderersWolves3085174158-1729
18Ipswich TownIpswich3048183063-3320
19Leicester CityLeicester3045212567-4217
20Southampton3024242271-4910


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