The English Premier League is showing us every season why it is the best football league in the world. Two of the reasons for that are playing this Sunday. The glorious Anfield stadium will host the clash of Liverpool and Manchester City. Since both teams are vying for the Premier League title, this could be a tone-setting game for the future of the season.

Liverpool is entering the bout with a ton of confidence and with a point to prove. With one minor hiccup against the tough Brentford team last weekend, Liverpool has been comfortably winning games in all competitions. They beat Milan and almost won against Chelsea, which were the toughest opposition teams Liverpool faced since the start of the season. Now, they face a huge test in title favorites Manchester City.

City has had an up-and-down season, but they are not to be underestimated. While a loss to Tottenham and PSG, and a draw with Southampton, are poor results, the Citizens still beat Chelsea away from home last weekend and are looking to end this stretch of tough games on a positive note.

Here are three predictions about this upcoming Premier League derby!

Liverpool v Man City predictions

Manchester City will win the game, comfortably 

While it is true that Liverpool is entering the game with a lot of positive results in the past few games, Manchester City is by far the toughest team they will face in the early part of the season. Of course, Chelsea is up there but the form of the European Champions has not been ideal.

Additionally, Liverpool still did not break down the defense of Chelsea in that game more than once, even with the red card given to Reece James. Against Milan, it was the shot from Jordan Henderson that sealed the game. Hendo is a great player, but he scores rarely and that was a saving card for Liverpool in that game.

Manchester City has not been ideal against big teams as well. They lost to Spurs and to PSG, but they still won against Premier League rivals Chelsea and played great in that game. It seems like Guardiola has the team clicking and while the PSG defeat will be a setback, it could also be extra motivation to give away fans a few goals to celebrate. This is also a clash of Guardiola and Klopp, both regarded as the best coaches in the Premier League. While not the first on the agenda, Guardiola will still look to get one on the German, for reputation's sake.

Salah, Firmino, Mane, and Jota will be invisible

This is a prediction that is very risky, as all of these players have the quality to impact the game at any point in time. However, the defense that only let in a single solitary goal for the whole Premier League season is no joke. It is not only the center-backs, Aymeric Laporte and Ruben Dias, but the fullbacks as well.

Guardiola has an issue on the left side of his defense. Benjamin Mendy is still unavailable, due to his court proceedings, and Zinchenko is injured and will miss this match. That leaves the Spaniard with Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker, the duo that played against PSG. Both are right-backs, so there might be some issues, but Laporte and Dias can help immensely to cover that.

Additionally, Guardiola always plays with a defensive midfielder for Manchester City. Should the game request it, Rodri or Fernandinho can slide between the center-backs and let them roam around the defense to help out. This is not the Guardiola team we expected, since his teams usually put all the eggs in the attack basket, but his granite-strong defense is still holding up – and they could silence the Liverpool attack.

Guardiola will get the team hyper-motivated after defeat to PSG

Guardiola has been mentioned a couple of times now, but he deserves his own section. In the Amazon documentary that City published a couple of years back, Guardiola was seen motivating his players in a manner of ways. Thus, in terms of pure motivation, the City roster will be beaming with the hunger to make people forget about the mid-week clash in Paris.

Jurgen Klopp and his motivation should not be underestimated, of course. However, much more has been said about Manchester City and their struggles. Along with their inability to get Harry Kane and Lionel Messi in the summer window, the press and general media surrounding the Citizens has been brutal, so Guardiola might use a stage like this Premier League clash versus Liverpool to show the strength of his squad.

Similarly, he made a statement with the way he conducted the team versus Arsenal. In no way can Liverpool and Arsenal be compared, but it is clear that the Spaniard values these derbies in England, and winning big against Liverpool might galvanize his team to stomp the Premier League once again.