Man City must beware change of approach to guard against Liverpool FC threat

Manchester City and Liverpool may have enjoyed contrasting starts to their Premier League campaigns, but Sunday's meeting at Anfield promises to be just as enthralling as previous encounters between the two sides.

City head into the contest unbeaten in the league so far, having won seven and drawn two of the opening nine matches. That puts them second in the standings, one point behind leaders Arsenal. Many expected City and Liverpool to be the two main title contenders once again this season, but Jurgen Klopp's side find themselves 13 points adrift of the Blues, albeit with a game-in-hand.

That said, Liverpool did respond to their 3-2 defeat at Arsenal last weekend with a 7-1 thumping of Rangers in the Champions League. During that match they reminded everyone just how dangerous they can be.

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Pep Guardiola will not have needed reminding of course; over the years the City boss has been generous in his praise of Liverpool, crediting them with pushing City on to reach even higher levels of performance.

While the Blues have lost twice to Liverpool this year - the FA Cup semi-final in April and the Community Shield in August - in the league it has been almost three years since City fell to their title rivals. It's not always been like that though.

During Pep's first two seasons at City - particularly 2017/18 - City could not cope with Liverpool's relentless pressing and clinical counter-attacks. In early 2018 City lost three times to Klopp's side, losing 4-3 and 3-0 at Anfield in the league and Champions League quarter-final first-leg respectively, before then falling 2-1 at home in the return leg.

In all three matches