Expert Premier League predictions from Mark Langdon: Tottenham can stay hot

The reaction to the announcement of the referee and his VAR team for Sunday's Premier League showdown between Manchester City and Liverpool at the Etihad was as predictable as it was sad.

Judging by the social media outrage you could have been forgiven for thinking Paul Dickov had been handed the whistle with Shaun Goater manning the video controls at Stockley Park and Georgi Kinkladze and Nicky Weaver running the line.

Instead it is Anthony Taylor officiating with Paul Tierney on VAR and according to many Liverpool supporters they both live too close to the Etihad to judge a football match impartially.

There has been nothing to ever suggest Taylor or Tierney should be chalked off a City game, and if anything, Tierney did Liverpool a massive favour in the reverse fixture at Anfield by not sending off James Milner for a clear second booking.

In the same week that video footage emerged of an amateur basketball referee being attacked in the US and Mike Dean revealed he has received death threats, the onus is on all respectable people not to fuel the flames in search of a few cheap likes or retweets.

Maybe Taylor will oversee a clanger on Sunday - humans make errors - but he is up there with Michael Oliver as one of England's two best arbiters and deserves of a game of this magnitude regardless of where he was born.

Taylor is a highly-respected professional and will do his best. If Jamie Carragher - the biggest Blue in Bootle - and several other Liverpool greats can forget their previous allegiances to Everton when wearing a Reds shirt I'm sure an Altrincham-supporting referee who was born in the vicinity of Manchester can be neutral in a Liverpool v City clash.

It should be a fantastic occasion as Liverpool head to Manchester with the title on the line. The Merseysiders have lost one of 21 games this year and that was a match in which they could afford a narrow reverse as they progressed past Inter on aggregate anyway.

Liverpool have 16 wins in their last 18 games (the other "failure" ended in Carabao Cup joy over Chelsea in a shootout), but City have lost only two of 30 and one of those was a Champions League group stage dead-rubber.

I wondered whether the draw might be the value bet.

Will either team risk losing if the match is tied in the second half because defeat could be decisive? Since the start of the 2018-19 season these teams have played seven league games and three finished level.

However, for a better bet head to Aston Villa where Reds legend Steven Gerrard could be set for another defeat which would be a fourth in a row when Tottenham visit.

Villa have lost all nine league games against the current top six this season and Tottenham have been rampant in recent weeks, winning five of their last six top-flight games to move up to fourth.

On expected goal difference per 90 minutes Spurs are now closer to Chelsea than they are to Arsenal and in those last six matches Antonio Conte's team are averaging an attacking xG of 2.45 per game according to fbref.com.

Best bet

Tottenham to beat Aston Villa
Sky Sports, 5.30pm Saturday
1pt 5-4 general

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