Jurgen Klopp jogging back to the dressing room and with good reason. He really needs to shake things up because City have dominated this first half but without reward.

The visitors started off on the back foot but quickly gained control and they’ll wonder how they’re not ahead at the break.

Phil Foden has ran James Milner ragged down City’s left side and will feel he should have given them the lead when denied by Alisson. Kevin De Bruyne was also guilty of a bad miss when he was unmarked and headed over.

Liverpool need a change of game plan to enable them to gain a grip on the contest. Easier said than done at the moment.

Absolutely majestic pass from Ederson over the top reaches Foden, who sneaks in ahead of Milner again. This time Alisson is ready and gets an outstretched leg on the ball to clear.

Alisson is then able to push away a Foden cross from the next wave of attack. It’s pretty constant and Liverpool will welcome a 15 minute breather right now.

Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp just wanting to get through to half-time unscathed now. They’ve looked pretty lethargic and City are in complete control.

More bad news as Milner goes in the book as Foden gets beyond him for the umpteenth time and he drags him down this time.

One is almost half the age of the other and it really is an unfair contest.

Another good City move down the left comes to nothing. Foden scorches beyond Milner once more and crosses to Gabriel Jesus at the back post. He can’t take it first time, works it back and De Bruyne’s shot is little more than a scuff.

City looking so much more confident going forward than Liverpool. They need to break the deadlock during this spell of dominance.

Another great opening for City and Kevin De Bruyne really should have put that away.

Yet another City attack down their left, getting beyond Milner, and it’s a fine cross hung up by Foden with De Bruyne unmarked and charging in at the back post. He makes the ball but directs his header over the top.

Half an hour gone and both sides have enjoyed their spells on top in what is a fascinating tactical duel as you might imagine. Phil Foden being denied by Alisson the highlight so far.

City screaming for a penalty as James Milner comes across and Foden goes down. Not given by the referee or VAR and City not impressed. It was outside the box in any case and the faintest of contacts on Foden’s heel.

The afternoon’s first booking and it’s Ruben Dias who dragged down Diogo Jota as the Liverpool man advanced through midfield.

Another quality move from City – neat ball over the top into Cancelo on the left touchline. There’s no options initially but finally they slip a pass into De Bruyne and he spins his shot across goal and wide.

Klopp prowling the touchline calling for more intensity from his side, who haven’t carved out a clear-cut chance as yet and they’ve allowed City to begin to control proceedings.

Terrific save by Alisson! City have come to life in then last few minutes and that’s the first chance of the game. A dreamy run and pass by Bernardo Silva which took him past a couple of red shirts before the pass wide left into Phil Foden. The England man bears down on goal but Alisson was alert, came off his line and smothered the shot.

Looking at the replays, maybe Foden could have hit that first time instead of allowing Alisson to further narrow the angle. Good save nonetheless.

An elaborate corner routine by City. Two on one and Foden switches the play back to De Bruyne about 40 yards from goal. He tries to loft a pass back into Foden but Liverpool’s defenders have seen that one before and race out to spring the offside trap. Foden can’t steer his header on target and was offside even if he had.

Better from City. Bernardo Silva stuns a lovely long pass down the left flank and Foden sprints in behind. They force a corner and Alisson has to punch away Foden’s inswinger under pressure from Ruben Dias. Liverpool do clear their lines.

Alisson did especially well because he does have the sun in his eyes facing in that direction.

Liverpool’s high press like a vice at the moment with City unable to string any moves together. They’re forced all the way back to Ederson and not for the first time. Guardiola’s side could do with a spell on the ball but the avenues are blocked.

Finally, they spring clear and get it to Grealish in space behind Milner. He tries to cut inside in the box and shoot but well blocked.

Sadio Mane is fouled in midfield and Liverpool have the chance to put the ball into a dangerous position. It’s played nicely into Milner and then cut inside to Salah before Henderson’s cross is blocked. City just happy to allow Liverpool onto them early on.

Good work from Henderson to force the game’s first corner in front of the Kop. Milner’s outswinger is almost met by Matip leaping in the middle and Salah’s strike is blocked.

Long ball from James Milner picks out Sadio Mane’s dart. He’s forced wide and City eventually deal with the danger. But Liverpool can attack again right away and Mohamed Salah bursts into the box before Joao Cancelo finally gets a grip.

Just judging from the early stages, it appears Jack Grealish is occupying a more central role to begin with.

Purposeful start by Liverpool and an early Henderson cross from the right has to be dealt with – and is.

But City break and an offside flag against Phil Foden gets Liverpool off the hook. Bright start from both teams.

Off and running at Anfield. Liverpool in all red, City in all blue as it should be.

Liverpool shooting towards the Kop in the first half and having to deal with a low sun just going down behind the stand.

The two sets of players assemble around the centre circle to join in a minute of applause for “Sir” Roger Hunt, who passed away last week.

A red and white mosaic on the Kop spells out the words “Sir Roger” and the Number eight as there is another rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone.

So much emotion inside Anfield.

City’s players are the first to emerge from the Anfield tunnel and get a hot reception as you’d imagine. They applaud the pocket of 3,000 travelling fans in the Anfield Road Stand.

Then a huge roar greets the Liverpool players as they too applaud as they walk out of the tunnel and onto the field.

How much better is this fixture with fans back in the stands. Scarves raised now for You’ll Never Walk Alone and we’re almost set.

It has become one of the defining fixtures in every Premier League season.

The last time they met at Anfield, in front of empty stands back in February, it was City who thrashed Liverpool 4-1 en route to the title.

You sense it won’t be quite as one-sided this afternoon. But both Liverpool and City can move top of the Premier League table this afternoon and kick-off is just a few minutes away now.

Liverpool: Alisson, Milner, Matip, van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Fabinho, Jones, Salah, Jota, Mane.
Substitutes: Konate, Keita, Firmino, Gomez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Minamino, Tsimikas, Kelleher, Williams

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, Foden, Grealish
Substitutes: Stones, Ake, Sterling, Steffen, Torres, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Carson, Palmer

Referee: Paul Tierney (Lancashire)

Jurgen Klopp did his best to suppress one of those big smiles but, by the end of the question, it had become impossible. The time had come to speak his mind about Pep Guardiola.

‘Not sure if I ever told Pep but… I like him, it’s true!’ said Liverpool’s manager. ‘From time to time, I annoy him with things I say in press conferences that are not meant to say anything bad about him or Man City, but then somebody on the City staff tells him, “Klopp said this or that!”

‘I can see in his press conference that he gets really angry. Sorry for that! No, look, I respect him a lot.’

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Today marks the first Liverpool home game since the passing of club legend Roger Hunt at the age of 83.

Affectionately known as ‘Sir Roger’ by the Kop faithful, he remains Liverpool’s all-time leading goalscorer in league competition and netted 285 goals in 492 matches for the club in total.

Hunt was also part of the England side that won the 1966 World Cup and also has the distinction of scoring the first goal screened on Match of the Day in 1964.

He died peacefully at home following a long illness on Monday evening.

Hunt features on the front cover of the matchday programme at Anfield this afternoon and fans will be invited to show their appreciation for him ahead of kick-off.

Full-time in the three early Premier League kick-offs.

Crystal Palace 2-2 Leicester City
Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Aston Villa
West Ham United 1-2 Brentford – a 95th-minute winner by Yoane Wissa wins it for the Bees at the London Stadium

Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival in Manchester has taken the spotlight off Jack Grealish, who would otherwise have been more scrutinised as the Premier League’s first £100million player.

I’m sure it’s helped but the biggest reason for his encouraging start at City is Pep Guardiola picking him every week.

We know Pep likes rotation, particularly with his attackers, but Grealish has started every Premier League and Champions League game so far in a position wide on the left which he knows and enjoys.

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Like a fine wine, getting better and better with age. This is usually how the ‘vintage’ James Milner is often described.

For good reason, too. The Yorkshireman has shown absolutely no signs of slowing down, despite now being in his 20th season of English football at the top level.

It is a quite remarkable career littered with trophies and accolades, and perhaps one which will never be matched.

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Don’t let Roy Keane see these, for goodness sake!

We’ve had a few goals fly in since my last update from the three other Premier League games, which are now entering the closing stages.

Crystal Palace have mounted a great fightback and are now drawing 2-2 against Leicester. Michael Olise and Jeffrey Schlupp have scored in the second half to drag them back into it.

Plenty of second-half drama at Tottenham where Ollie Watkins levelled for Aston Villa only for Lucas Moura to restore Spurs’ lead four minutes later.

And West Ham have levelled against Brentford thanks to Jarrod Bowen. 1-1 there.

Click the link below if you want to follow the closing stages.

Liverpool: Alisson, Milner, Matip, van Dijk, Robertson, Henderson, Fabinho, Jones, Salah, Jota, Mane.
Substitutes: Konate, Keita, Firmino, Gomez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Minamino, Tsimikas, Kelleher, Williams

Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Laporte, Joao Cancelo, Bernardo Silva, Rodri, De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus, Foden, Grealish
Substitutes: Stones, Ake, Sterling, Steffen, Torres, Fernandinho, Mahrez, Carson, Palmer

Referee: Paul Tierney (Lancashire)

James Milner continues to deputise at right-back for Trent Alexander-Arnold, who has a groin injury. Thiago Alcantara is also out with a calf problem, meaning it’s a midfield three of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and Curtis Jones. Diogo Jota takes his place in the attack with Roberto Firmino names on the bench. As the tweet says, Divock Origi misses out on the squad through illness.

Man City didn’t have any fresh injury worries ahead of this one with midfielder Ilkay Gundogan and left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko the only players sidelined with thigh and calf injuries respectively. Phil Foden comes into the line-up as he partners Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish up top with Raheem Sterling dropping out again.

We will be bringing you the two team line-ups any moment as we enter the final hour before kick-off at Anfield.

Jurgen Klopp has hit out at unvaccinated players and claimed if it is their ‘freedom’ not to be jabbed, they might as well argue it is their right to drink and drive.

Klopp, whose mother died of Covid-19 last year, said that 99 per cent of his Liverpool team were vaccinated but questioned why clubs weren’t allowed to quiz their players on whether they had had the vaccine.

Pressure is mounting on players to set an example to youngsters by revealing their vaccination status after reports that key members of Gareth Southgate’s England squad remain unvaccinated.

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There’s certainly no mistaking the Liverpool team bus, is there?

Liverpool haven’t lost consecutive league games against Manchester City since a run of four between 1935 and 1937, going down 4-1 the last time the sides met in February.

Manchester City won this exact fixture 4-1 last season, ending a run of 17 away league games without a win at Liverpool (D5 L12). The Citizens haven’t won consecutive league games at Anfield since January 1953.

Liverpool have won just one of their last seven Premier League games against reigning champions (D2 L4), beating Manchester City 3-1 at home in their own title winning campaign of 2019-20.

Liverpool are the only side still unbeaten in the Premier League this season (W4 D2), while the Reds have also netted more goals than any other side this term (15). However, Man City have conceded the fewest goals so far in 2021-22 (1), keeping a clean sheet in each of their last five games.

Liverpool are unbeaten in 16 league games (W12 D4), the longest current run without defeat in the top four tiers of English football. However, the Reds conceded more goals in their 3-3 draw at Brentford last time out than they had in their previous eight league games combined (2).

COURTESY OF OPTA

The Manchester City players and staff making their way through the streets to Anfield a short time ago. We’ve seen some very hostile welcomes from Liverpool fans in the past but this time it appears the buses have made it safely to the ground.

If you’re in the market for a little bet this afternoon, here’s the latest odds on this match and also the title race courtesy of Betfair

Liverpool vs Manchester City
Liverpool to win – 2/1
Manchester City to win – 13/10
Draw – 12/5

Premier League winner
Manchester City – 21/20
Chelsea – 11/4
Liverpool – 5/1
Manchester United 21/1

As always before such a big fixture, we’ve taken a look at the two squads and worked out a combined XI from the best of Liverpool and the best of Man City.

You might expect the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah to be in there but who else makes the cut?

Click the link below to find out

There are no fewer than THREE Premier League games already underway this afternoon and there’s goals in all of them.

Tottenham lead Aston Villa 1-0 thanks to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s goal after 27 minutes, while Brentford are 1-0 up at West Ham after Bryan Mbeumo scored.

Leicester, meanwhile, lead Crystal Palace 2-0 thanks to strikes from Kelechi Iheanacho and Jamie Vardy.

All of those just into the second half and you can follow the latest by clicking the link below.

Chelsea hit the top of the Premier League yesterday when they beat Southampton 3-1 but that could prove to be somewhat short lived.

Both Liverpool and City can move to the summit if they take all three points. Liverpool have 14 points, two behind Chelsea, while City are on 13.

Pep Guardiola’s team would need to win by two goals, however, to leapfrog Chelsea.

Another weekend, another meeting of title contenders in the Premier League.

Manchester City reminded us all of their class – and that they are, in fact, the defending champions – when they bossed last Saturday’s meeting with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

But after their midweek Champions League setback against PSG, Pep Guardiola’s side face another tricky assignment as they head to Anfield to take on Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp’s Reds have been in good form as well and, like City, are within touching distance of top spot this afternoon.

It’s all set up to be a fascinating encounter with two master tacticians going head-to-head with the Anfield crowd certain to provide a brilliant atmosphere.

Welcome along to our live coverage of this 4.30pm kick-off. Plenty of build-up and the team news to come before then.