Manchester City v Liverpool: Big odds for rejuvenated forwards

• Doubts over streghth of Guardiola squad

• Liverpool had strong side in weekend win

• Haaland and Salah look value to score

Manchester City 2.01/1 v Liverpool 4.131/10; The Draw 3.929/10
Thursday 22 December, 20:00
Live on Sky Sports Main Event

Uncertainty over City strength

Manchester City return to action with a high-profile match against their biggest rivals, when they host Liverpool in the EFL Cup fourth round on Thursday.

With City five points behind the leaders Arsenal when the season paused for the World Cup, Pep Guardiola needs his side to hit the ground running.

How realistic that is at a time when the side are short of match practice and players are still recovering from the World Cup, remains to be seen. On Saturday they beat Girona 2-0 in a friendly. The scorers were Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland, who along with Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez, were the only regular first-team players to feature.

After that game Guardiola revealed that Nathan Ake, Aymer Laporte and Rodri would return to training this week, with players from the England and Portugal squads to follow a little later. We shall have to wait and see how strong City's side will be for their first match back.

Liverpool put out impressive side at weekend

Liverpool have an even greater need than Manchester City for their form to improve following the World Cup break.

The Reds were sixth when the season were paused. Challenging for the Premier League title looks out of the question, but it's imperative that Jurgen Klopp's team finish in the top four.

Klopp will hope that Mohamed Salah in particular, has been refreshed by the break. The Egyptian has had a rare chance to recharge, with his nation having failed to qualify for the World Cup. Though Salah has been typically lethal in the Champions League, he's only scored six goals in 14 Premier League matches.

There's a big doubt on whether Liverpool will be able to field players that were involved in the World Cup from the quarter-finals onwards. Nevertheless, Liverpool beat AC Milan 4-1 in a friendly over the weekend and were able to name a pretty strong starting lineup, with Darwin Nunez coming off the bench to add two late goals.

Value could be with visitors

Manchester City are the favourites at 2.01/1, with the draw at 3.929/10 and Liverpool at 4.131/10.

That's quite a short price for City considering we have little idea how strong a team that they will be able to field. Liverpool were able to put a side out at the weekend that would surely be favourites against the one that Guardiola selected in City's friendly.

You can get odds of 1.991/1 for Liverpool to avoid defeat in 90 minutes in the Double Chance market, or 2.568/5 in the To Qualify market. Both could provide quite a lot of value based on the respective sides that we saw at the weekend, though with such uncertainty regarding the team selection, you may wish to wait until the sides are named.

Haaland big to continue scoring streak

What does seem like a certainty is that Haaland will start. He's had a few weeks off to rest while the World Cup was going on. Not that he needed one, of course.

The Norwegian scored 23 goals in 18 appearances in the first part of the season. Odds of 1.9210/11 for him to add to that tally look huge considering his previous form and that he netted over the weekend.

Liverpool will be looking for Salah to deliver and when you factor in all of his goals across all competitions, 14 in 21 appearances doesn't look too shabby. Salah is 3.052/1 to find the net.

You can back the two players to score in a Bet Builder at combined odds of 5.3587/20. Or, take a little less risk at 4.03/1 by combining Haaland to score and Salah to either score or assist.