EPL : Why Liverpool vs. Manchester City Is a Massive Game for Both Teams

There is no reason to doubt as to which match promises to be the most crucial in the upcoming fixtures for second week in the English premier League (actually, the match is to be played on Monday 23rd August) in the Barclays Premier League.

In what promises to be a mouth-watering encounter at the City of Manchester Stadium, a rejuvenating Liverpool side is set to face a newly furnished Manchester City . With a lot at stake, this match promise to be a joy to watch.

The lavishly spending City only managed to draw level with the Anfield outfit in their last two encounters last season. However, with the comfort of hundred of millions still to spend, City hasn't at all deterred from their strategy and have yet again recorded a huge outlay.

David Silva, Jerome Boateng, Mario Balotelli, and Alesandr Kolarov have all made their way to the eastlands and even though their record-breaking buy Robinho has in-effect indicated the club of his departure, with Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Adebayor in their line-up, City are undoubtedly one of the strongest team in this year's premier league.

Compared to the above, Liverpool FC have also strengthened their squad with the additions of Milan Jovanovic, Christian Poulsen, Danny Wilson, and of course, Joe Cole. However, after an unfortunate sequence of events in their opening encounter versus Arsenal, Joe Cole was shown the Red card which means he will effectively miss the match against Manchester City.

Now coming to the match, both Liverpool and Manchester City have had a similar build-ups inspite of the massive spending difference. Whereas Manchester City drew rivals Tottenham, Liverpool also gave away their first goal advantage and had to be satisfied with a draw, too.

After this in the Europa, both the Premier league teams won by a solitary goal, although City's win kept them in better stead to progress further in the competition as they won away from home.

In the last few years, it has been seen that with the strengthening of the squad, Manchester City has been pretty strong against Liverpool head-on. 

This year, though, the stakes are much higher for both the clubs and although this will be  just the second match into their campaign, both City and Liverpool should not really stand to lose much more than just the three points. Even if they lose, this match is a massive prospect for the two clubs from quite a different angle.

The Liverpool FC vs Manchester City match is a big match because it may just make a big statement. Although Mancini's managing manners are held in high regard, this match is going to be more of a classic in ways mentioned below.

Roberto Mancini vs Roy Hodgson

In this battle, it is going to be a battle of Ws. Roy Hodgson's astute use of Wit and Will against Mancini's Wealthy inheritance.

Roy Hodgson has been a respected figure world wide and is known for forming a solid organization with the team he has no matter how limited be the resources, whereas Roberto Mancini himself has been a pretty good player in his time and is considered to one who knows the game inside out.

Although very different approaches may be tried on the day, Liverpool FC is bound to try to be a little more solid at the back and organise their game much like they did in the second half versus Arsenal even with 10 or sometimes nine men.

Mancini, on the other hand, has not only an impressive starting line-up, but also an equally star-laden reserve bench. So with plentiful at his command, if City doesn't build upon their last season's as well as last match's performance against the spurs, the result of this match is surely not going make their status any better, nor is it going to do Mr. Mancini any favor, who should know it by now that he doesn't have a very long time to impress the owners.

Expensive Buys vs Bargain-buys

This match is also going to be memorable in a very unique way as both the teams should feature a host of new faces on Monday, the 24th of August.

Although Liverpool have not gone in for a massive overhaul, which has been pretty much exactly what Manchester City has tried to do, the tussle at the City of Manchester City stadium should be an entertaining matchup between bargain buys and the lavishly paid men; both are not really experienced at the Premier League conditions as of yet.

It can also go some distance ahead of the Fair Play rules applications to explain that whether it is really possible to go for cheap alternatives and  still keep challenging the more well to do teams. If Liverpool manages to put in a show just like both their second-half performances after the season kicked off, they will have made a bigger statement on those lines for certain.

Barring the two mentioned areas, there are of course going to be massive matchups amongst players, even though football is a game of 11. Individual brilliances have far too many times won matches on their own and thus a man-to-man and player-to-player comparison is also going to be a huge huge attraction especially because both these teams have top class players in plenty.

Although Liverpool FC may have started in a very promising manner under Hodgson, who  has become only the second manager ever after the legendary Bill Shankly to register win all three initial European ties, with ties against Rabotnicki, it must have been a fortunate enough incident for Hodgson n. The team has also begun to show the signs of maturity as they start playing as a unit. The last part of his argument also applies equally well to the Sky blues.

However, any last hopes of the club sale before the transfer window is over now after Kenny Huang led Chinese interest has apparently cooled off. Whether that has an effect on the pitch remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it is bound to be a a sort of distraction for sure and unless Hodgson's reported bid for Ola Toivonen comes off, some negativity may well burden some of the Reds.

Prediction—Most Likely result—Another Draw.

After watching the game that City played against the Spurs where they were extremely dismal, it could have been better to keep the Reds ahead in this tie, but with two of their star performers against Arsenal in Agger and Mascherano (both doubtful to start), it may well be all squared once again. However, it promises to be a massive contest all the same.