Rampant Reds surprisingly good value for monumental showdown

You might think that when Liverpool clash with Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday the prices would be pretty much spot on given how we all basically know everything there is to know about both teams.

But you’d be wrong. Liverpool are outsiders, which is something I cannot explain. This could be the highest-quality Premier League match ever played - even if Jordan Henderson is selected.

Both starting 11s are guaranteed to be dripping in quality and an absorbing battle, one of two that will have an enormous effect on deciding which of these awesome teams wins the title, awaits.

But given how it has been priced up it now becomes a fine betting proposition as well as simply a contest to sit back and enjoy.

This will be the 50th league game each has played since the start of the 2018-19 season. Liverpool have won 40 and drawn eight of their previous 49 fixtures, a phenomenal run stained only by a narrow 2-1 defeat at City in January.

Twenty-four of Liverpool’s matches took place at Anfield and resulted in 22 home wins and two draws. Indeed you have to go back to April 23, 2017 for the last time they lost at home in the league, a 2-1 defeat featuring two goals in 90 minutes from Crystal Palace’s Christian Benteke, who these days needs the best part of a season to score twice.

What we are dealing with on Sunday are a team with a 35-10-0 home record against a visiting side who are 35-5-5 on the road. Liverpool have gained four points more than City since the 2018-19 season began and lead this season’s title battle by six points.

They have no injury problems and will be cheered on by a passionate home crowd. So on what basis are they outsiders? Why are Liverpool 7-4 and City 6-4? I don’t get it.

City are, it goes without saying, a superb team. They have won the title in the last two seasons and remain a squad with talent and depth in almost every position.

But the crucial word here is almost. Because that is undoubtedly not the case when it comes to the centre of their defence, where they have looked somewhere between dodgy and downright shambolic at times this term, not least when embarrassed by Norwich.

Pep Guardiola has resorted to playing two central midfielders as centre backs at times, a clear indication of his unease about the competence of John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi, the only two fit stoppers since Vincent Kompany left and Aymeric Laporte ruptured his ACL.

By contrast Jurgen Klopp has no such glaring area of vulnerability and it is certain he will urge his troops to rip into City’s weak spot from the word go on Sunday.

City have won just two of their last 13 clashes with Liverpool and have been overwhelmed by the men in red in many of those encounters.

Expect an incredibly high tempo from the start with Salah, Firmino and Mane tearing into the City defence and the Liverpool midfield and full backs surging upfield in support. How City withstand the early onslaught, and potentially pass their way beyond the press to create opportunities of their own, will be crucial to deciding the final score.

To quote my wise colleague Kevin Pullein, in any match anything can happen, and that obviously includes a City victory in Sunday’s monumental showdown.

But there is a considerable body of evidence that shows there is almost nothing between these two magnificent teams and therefore, with home advantage, it is hard to ignore the view that Liverpool, as outsiders, are an excellent bet.

Lack of a superstar didn't spoil Santa Anita spectacle

However many times you watch a race from there on TV and however many of Edward Whitaker’s gorgeous photos you have seen, the reality of walking into Santa Anita still inspires pure awe.

The magnificent old grandstand, bathed in California sunshine, tells you loud and clear you you are somewhere special but then you pass through it and see the track, its verdant infield and the towering mountains behind and the jaw drops.

I dislike the notion that one should go to special places to tick off a bucket list as it implies you are only there to say you were there. You should go because you want to experience it for yourself rather than simply to buy the T-shirt and send the tweet.

Being at Santa Anita on Saturday for the second day of the Breeders’ Cup was a joy because the reality of the place exceeded every glowing word that has ever been written about it.

The big surprise was the atmosphere. To say there wasn’t one would be untrue and unfair, but it existed in a totally unexpected way.

Usually at one of the great race meetings there is a buzz in the air that builds as the big race of the day gets closer.

That was indiscernible on Saturday but that is not to say it was dead or disappointingly quiet. Instead, what came across loud and clear was that this was an occasion that was being enjoyed by a crowd of nearly 68,000 in the most laid-back way imaginable.

People were drinking, laughing and punting but they weren’t making a big song and dance about it. It was great.

Perhaps the fact the first race went off at just after ten o’clock in the morning local time with the last of the 12 contests taking place nearly eight hours later was a factor. You needed to pace yourself.

Maybe too the absence of a single contest that dominated the rest of the card, like most big races do, meant there was little by way of a crescendo building through the day.

Whatever, it was a pleasure to be there even though this must rank as one of the weakest, most starless Breeders’ Cups of all times. Fallow years are inevitable - and if you took out Enable the domestic Flat season has been particularly lacking in elite quality - and the weekend suffered from a fusion of few big-name European challengers and an absence of genuine American headline acts.

A visit to Santa Anita is recommended. It is beautiful, and hopefully you will have many years to be able to enjoy it, but there are challenges facing the track and they relate to welfare.

There has been an unusually high number of fatalities there this year and it was a choker that Mongolian Groom lost his life in the final race of the weekend, thus preventing organisers being able to say, as they had so dearly wanted, that every runner returned home safely.

Pressure is mounting on Santa Anita and American racing in general to significantly reduce fatality rates, and it is hoped strenuous efforts to achieve this will be successful so everyone has the opportunity to enjoy this truly wonderful sporting venue for many decades to come.

Under-appreciated Arsene deserves a crack at another big job

Considering he wants to carry on working it is amazing and indeed peculiar that Arsene Wenger has not been employed as a football manager since leaving Arsenal in May 2018.

He is entitled to consider himself one of the most under-appreciated managers in the game’s recent history, having achieved so much in his incredible stint with the Gunners which lasted 22 years, a phenomenal duration that does not get the admiration it deserves simply because it overlapped with Sir Alex Ferguson’s even longer period in charge at Old Trafford.

Wenger, as well breaking United’s stranglehold on the Premier League, promoted a pure brand of football that helped the game here rid itself of its neanderthal image and built one of the best sides in the history of English football.

He has been heavily linked this week with the vacancy at Bayern Munich and it would be superb if he was given the opportunity to show what he can do at such a big club.

It is ridiculous that such a talented manager has been forced to wait so long to get back into the dugout.

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