Premier League – City detached, Chelsea decimated, Liverpool distracted: the « Big Three » do not live the same end of the year

Manchester City, 1st (50 pts)

Like the number of consecutive victories of Kevin De Bruyne’s partners. Even without always being sparkling, and despite the hellish schedule of the Premier League teams, this Manchester City remains a breathtaking winning machine that nothing seems to be able to stop.

Josep Guardiola (Manchester City coach): « There are still 54 points to go. It is not expected to have so much difference, but Liverpool have one game less. In December, nobody is champion. We are going to lose games. I do not can say more than congratulations to my team, but we still need to focus« .

D21: Arsenal-Manchester City
D22: Manchester City-Chelsea

Chelsea, 2nd (42 pts)

Like the number of injury changes over Chelsea’s last three league games. Christensen and James joined the list of absentees on Wednesday night after being injured. Not to mention the cases of Covid in the ranks of the Blues, which make the workforce of a particularly annoyed Thomas Tuchel extremely weakened in view of the next deadlines.

Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea coach): « Our players are injured. I told you what was going to happen weeks ago! You don’t have to think about the Liverpool game, we just have to try to find suitable players. We have no more side and everyone is injured … « .

D21: Chelsea – Liverpool
D22: Manchester City – Chelsea

Liverpool, 3rd (41 pts)

Liverpool are 9 points behind the Mancunian leader, with one game less. But the Reds were still worried with a defeat to Leicester (1-0) and a disaster scenario with a penalty missed by Mohamed Salah and a Kasper Schmeichel in a state of grace. With 4 points taken out of 9 possible in the league, Liverpool is skating and will have to make a clear round in 2022 to keep a title hope.

In Liverpool’s last three games, the Reds have conceded the opener three times. In other words, the lack of concentration of Virgil Van Dijk’s partners has been severely punished in recent weeks, and lost precious points to Klopp’s men in December. Like last year, the Boxing Day period is definitely not a success for them at all.

Jürgen Klopp (Liverpool coach): « It’s a big gap (with City)… But right now that’s not my problem. If we play normal football, THE football of Liverpool, we will have the possibility of winning many more matches.« 

D21: Chelsea-Liverpool
D22: Liverpool-Brentford