Man City Look To Keep Their Title Hopes Alive As They Visit Liverpool

English Premier League play resumes this weekend after a week of Champions and Europa leagues play for many of the top flight teams. We have a nice menu of fixtures this weekend, topped off with one massive one at Anfield. Will Chelsea continue their run of good form vs. Crystal Palace? Can Arsenal slow down red-hot Leicester? Can Man City hand Liverpool their first loss at Anfield since 2017?

Let’s take a closer look at these three matchups.

Crystal Palace (+850) @ Chelsea (-315), Draw (+450)
Chelsea is coming off of what will surely be a nominee for Match of the Year, vs. Ajax, just a couple short days ago in Champions League play. It was an entertaining back and forth 4-4 draw at Stamford Bridge. Now it’s time to regain focus on EPL play, where they are fourth in the standings and on a run of good play, winners of five in a row. There will be a few changes for them as a few of their players got banged up in that Champions League match. Their London counterparts Crystal Palace have been in middling form, losing two of their last three league games with one draw. Even with the middling form, Palace sit closer to first than to last (9th in the standings), mainly due to the fact they’ve held their own vs. the better teams in the league, taking 7 of a possible 12 points vs. teams that finished in the top-10 last season. Chelsea is the better team, but coming off of that tough UCL match so recently, expect this game to be closer than expected. ​The value play here is Home Team to win and Both Teams to score Yes (+185).

Arsenal (+255) @ Leicester City (+105), Draw (+270)
Arsenal head into Leicester’s King Power Stadium on Saturday to take on the red-hot Foxes,and the Gunners are not playing well at all. They have won just one of their last five EPL matches, and in their last six road matches, they’ve only brought home one point. They sit fifth in the standings but well back of the top-4. Leicester, on the other hand, are playing lights out right now. They’re won five of their last six league matches, putting them ahead of the pace they had at the same stage when they won the entire league in the 2015-16 season. Leicester have won their last four home league matches as well, outscoring their opponents 12 goals to 3 in that time span. Head to head Leicester has won two of the last three vs. Arsenal. Leicester sit third in the standings, a mere two points behind Man City and eight behind Liverpool. With a win and a favorable result in other matches, they could either take second or move to within five of Liverpool in the standings. Look for them to come out flying and control the play vs. reeling Arsenal early on in this one. There’s all kinds of value favoring the home team, not the least of which is ​Leicester City moneyline (+105). ​We also like ​Home Team to win and Both Teams To Score Yes (+240). Jamie Vardy to Score (-109) ​is also a good player prop that holds some value.

Manchester City (+160) @ Liverpool (+165), Draw (+260)
Now this is the cracker of the matchday. The biggest game of the EPL season. 1 vs. 2. Klopp vs. Guardiola. Salah vs. Aguero. What a match this looks to be. Liverpool stand in first place with 31 points, with an overall record of 10-0-1. They haven’t lost a league match in over a year and look almost unbeatable. They stand six points clear of City’s 25 points, and a win here for either team will go a long way in deciding the final fate for each of them this season. Last year, City edged out Liverpool by the smallest of slivers, 98 points to 97, and head to head they drew at Anfield and City won at home--that was the difference. This one game in November with seven months to go in the season will have a ripple effect that will be felt over those entire seven months. For the match itself, look for Liverpool to absorb the blistering City attack that lead the EPL with 24 goals, eight more than the Reds. The City defense is a bit suspect, but with attackers like Sergio Aguero, Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bryune, among others, their best defense may be their offense, and to just try to outscore Liverpool. The intangible here is the home field for Liverpool, where they haven’t lost since 2017. They have amazing home support and the crowd will be at a fever pitch. If Liverpool wins, it might be (probably will be) a wrap for the league title this season because if Man City can’t beat them, who will? Man City knows this and will come into this match with the intention to go for broke; they need a victory to have any chance at winning the league. There’s all kinds of value in this game. Start with ​Total goals over 2.5 (-152). ​We also love ​Home Team to win and Both Teams to score Yes (+340). Our favorite player prop bet is Raheem Sterling to score (+200). ​Last but not least ​Tie No Bet Liverpool (-106) ​holds good value (for the uninitiated Tie No Bet bettors, if the game ends in a draw then the bet is null and your wager returned).

That’s your EPL matchday 12 preview. It should be another amazing weekend of soccer, capped off by Liverpool-Man City on Sunday. Enjoy watching and good luck!

Credit to the main photo of this article belongs to Luca Bruno/Associated Press