Tomorrow marks the biggest day and probably game the 2018-2019 Premier League has seen maybe of the year. For sure since Liverpool and Manchester City played at the beginning of January. Not only does it affect the race to finish in the top four and play in the coveted Champions League, but it will have a direct impact on who is crowned Premier League champions.
Why? Manchester City are finally playing their game in hand that will have them and Liverpool even on total amount of games play. As if that is not a big enough occasion, City get the privilege to play hated rivals Manchester United.
Here is how we sit in the title race right now
Liverpool GP - 35 GD - 59 Points - 88
Manchester City GP- 34 GD - 65 Points- 86
Here are the two teams remaining Premier League schedules after Wednesday’s Manchester Derby.
Liverpool: 4/26 Huddersfield, 5/4 @Newcastle, 5/12 Wolves
Manchester City: 4/28 @Burnley, 5/6 Leicester, 5/12 @Brighton
You would assume for both teams, that is nine points. So today’s game may as well be the game that decides who wins the Premier League. And even though they are not playing, this is the biggest game in Liverpool’s Premier League history. Liverpool has never won the modern-era Premier League, which was formed in 1992. Sure they have 18 top flight championships, but that has not happened since 1989-1990 season. A top flight crown is the one thing that the club has been missing. They have won three FA Cups, four League Cups, a Europa League, and a Champions League.
It is not like Liverpool have not come close in the Premier League. They have finished second three different times since 2000. This season has been different however. Currently only with one league loss this year, they could finish with 97 total points. That point total would have won the league in every single other year, except last year’s Manchester City title season. Most would consider this the best team to ever finish second in maybe soccer history.
So what do Liverpool’s title hopes depend on? Hated rivals, Manchester United.
Rivals since the 18th and 19 the century, the cities of Manchester and Liverpool hate each other. They rivaled each other as competing cities during the industrial revolution. It naturally went onto the pitch and it has been a lopsided one of recent times. United have 13 all time Premier League titles under Sir Alex Ferguson. Their 20 total top flight championships beat out Liverpool’s 18 and United fans and continually remind Liverpool of it.
Do I need to present the irony of United needing a result to help crown Liverpool champions? No? Ok.
Here is the question that has been raised between fans. Should United lose on purpose, just so Liverpool does not win a title? Some fans believe so.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp had his say on the game. Klopp maybe threw some shots after Manchester United’s 4-0 to Everton, saying “"It [the derby] is not something we can influence, and it does not look like United are in a place to, either.”
For one day, and one day only, Liverpool fans become United fans. A game that could rewrite the narrative of a historic football club, everything about the 2018-2019 Premier League season depends on today’s derby.