🏏 Sun, 11 Oct 2026 16:30 BST
Liverpool FC
vs
Manchester City
4-2-3-1 vs 4-2-3-1
Substitutes
Substitutes
Match Preview
- Manchester City come to Anfield as the only side in the division with a perfect record: five wins from five, 15 points and a goal difference of +8 that lifts them above Arsenal, level on 15 points but with +5. Liverpool sit eighth on nine points from two wins and three draws, still unbeaten and with a game in hand, yet already six points adrift of the leaders.
- Liverpool have kept three consecutive clean sheets — a 2-0 win at Ipswich on matchday 3, a goalless draw with Fulham and a 1-0 victory at Bournemouth. The worry is at the other end: just seven goals in five matches, with 2-2 draws against Newcastle and Nottingham Forest to open the season, against a City side that has already scored 13.
- Erling Haaland leads the line for the visitors. The 26-year-old Norwegian, 195cm tall and the scorer of 36 league goals in his debut Premier League campaign, will be picked up by Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool's 35-year-old captain of identical height, and by 21-year-old Jérémy Jacquet, the Rennes-schooled centre-back who has represented France at youth level.
- Two 2022 World Cup winners meet in the centre of the pitch. Alexis Mac Allister, the 27-year-old signed from Brighton, sets Liverpool's rhythm from central midfield, while Enzo Fernández — once a British record signing for Chelsea — combines ball-winning with creation in City's double pivot at 25. Argentina team-mates on opposite sides of the halfway line.
- It is also a meeting of playmakers. Florian Wirtz, the 23-year-old German who drove Bayer Leverkusen's unbeaten Bundesliga title, must find space between Enzo Fernández and Elliot Anderson. At the other end Rayan Cherki, the two-footed 23-year-old from Lyon's academy and a former Ligue 1 dribbler of the year, runs into Ryan Gravenberch, Liverpool's 190cm anchor.
- Elliot Anderson faces an early examination of his price tag. The 23-year-old joined from Nottingham Forest for a reported £116m, a record fee for a British player, after coming through Newcastle's academy, and played all eight matches at the 2026 World Cup on the way to a third-place finish. His dribbling and forward drive in tight areas will be tested by the Anfield press.
- There is a Bournemouth subplot down the flank. Miloš Kerkez, the 22-year-old Hungary left-back, made his name on the south coast before joining Liverpool, and Antoine Semenyo, the 26-year-old Ghana winger, left the same club for City in the winter of 2026. Kerkez's overlapping runs and left-footed crossing against Semenyo's direct running and shooting power is one of the night's key duels.
- Wataru Endō begins on the bench for Liverpool. The 33-year-old Japan captain is a defensive midfielder built on duels and interceptions, having been crowned the Bundesliga's duel king during his Stuttgart years. If City take control of possession and pin the hosts back, he is the natural option to add steel to the midfield late in the game.
- Jeremie Frimpong lines up against the club where he was schooled. The 25-year-old Netherlands right-back came through Manchester City's U23 ranks before spells at Celtic and Leverkusen, where his relentless pace contributed to an unbeaten Bundesliga title. From the bench he is Liverpool's change-of-tempo option on the right.
- The goalkeeping matchup is a heavyweight one. Alisson Becker, the 34-year-old Brazilian at 193cm, faces Gianluigi Donnarumma, 27 and 196cm, named player of the tournament at EURO 2020 and a Champions League winner with Paris Saint-Germain in 2025. Both are comfortable in possession, so how each side builds from the goalkeeper will shape the game.