Experts split as Liverpool and Man City's Premier League title chances predicted

We could be 90 minutes away from crowning Manchester City the Premier League champions for the fourth time in five years.

Liverpool must not lose to Southampton on Tuesday night or else their hopes of winning the Premier League for a second time is over. A win or draw at St Mary's takes it to the final day, where the Reds take on Wolves and City face Aston Villa.

We have asked some of Mirror Football's top reporters for their predictions as we enter the final straight. So will it be Pep Guardiola or Jurgen Klopp? Jordan Henderson or Fernandinho? Man City or Liverpool?

JOHN CROSS

I do think Liverpool will take it to the final day. It's been an incredible race but City have been incredible. Liverpool going for four trophies and all the talk about that plus City's exit in Real Madrid has rather disguised the fact just how good City have been this season.

They've been phenomenal. Let's not forget they've been the best team in the Premier League this season. Liverpool have been sensational because they've been attacking on so many fronts.

But City have been the best team in the Premier League, in my opinion. I voted for Kevin De Bruyne in the Football Writers' Association just because I love watching him. I love watching City. Whoever wins the title deserves it. They've been the best team. And that will be City.

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I think Liverpool will beat Southampton. But it's impossible to see City slipping again at home to Aston Villa and pushing us through another Sergio Aguero moment. Yes, Liverpool will surely get two wins. But they'll fall just short even if in any other era, they'd have walked it. We are watching two of the best teams, two of the best managers and two of the best squads in English football history. And they've come along at the same time!

ANDY DUNN

On little more than a hunch, I reckon Liverpool could pull off one of the more unlikely Premier League triumphs.

Jurgen Klopp's side will take care of Southampton at St Mary's and Wolves at Anfield while City's vulnerability to the counter-attack might well be exposed by Aston Villa.

Even if Klopp rests a few, they will still have too much for Southampton on Tuesday and that will mean a high-pressure Sunday for a City side who will know they could have pretty much wrapped things up at the London Stadium.

DAVID MADDOCK

Yes it's unlikely, but I'm going for a dramatic and epic Liverpool title win on the final day of the Premier League season IF they can somehow smuggle a victory over Southampton on Tuesday night, with a team of reserves and quite possibly the kit man!

Hell, even Jurgen Klopp could play…well, probably not after he ran out of gas so quickly while chasing Kostas Tsimikas at Wembley after that penalty shoot out triumph. But you get the point.

I see the visit to Southampton as key. Somehow win it, and Liverpool get so much momentum, it will put doubt in the minds of City. And then there's the Steven Gerrard factor. He will take his Aston Villa side to the Etihad on the final day, and if ever there is a scenario which screams 'fairytale football story', it's this.

That slip. Those tears. The agony of never winning the title with Liverpool, never winning it in his entire career. Yet by taking points on the final day, he can win it for his former club. If that's no romance, then nothing is. It's unlikely. City haven't dropped points in consecutive games since December 2020. But they have no defence, and an injury list so long Pep may be on the bench…

Of course, that particular dream could be all over by Tuesday night, because Klopp will have to gamble on maybe eight or nine changes at Southampton. But if they win, then prepare for some last day fireworks.

NEIL SQUIRES

Liverpool's tenacity means the race will go to the last day - a remarkable effort from a side that trailed Manchester City by 14 points at one stage - but the defending champions will not be denied. They have done the hard yards and have a home banker to finish with in Aston Villa on Sunday.

Steven Gerrard factor or not, one team has nothing to play for, the other has everything on the line and that, combined with City's class, sways the balance definitively their way. It is inconceivable that they will fall at the last hurdle.

GIDEON BROOKS

Southampton bring quite possibly the worst form in the top flight into their clash with Liverpool and it looks unlikely they can withstand Liverpool tonight even allowing for a host of absentees.

And if that pans out as expected - putting them back a point behind MAN CITY - the Reds will look for Steven Gerrard to do them a favour at the Etihad on Sunday. Liverpool, who face Wolves at home, would need Villa to help them to the title with a draw or better but I cannot see that happening given City's confidence at home of late.

Since drawing with Liverpool on April 10 they have averaged four goals a game and 4.33 at home. Added to that, since Villa's last win at City in April 2007 they have posted 11 straight wins (with an aggregate of 35-4). Liverpool will beat Wolves as well but a crowning performance from City beckons.

MIKE WALTERS

If you think Manchester City are going to blow the title from here, you probably believe in Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy and that Boris Johnson is an honest man of the people.

The Hollywood script is that Steven Gerrard will win the the title for Liverpool - an honour which escaped him as a player - by taking Aston Villa to the Etihad, denying City the win that nails down their fourth Premier League crown in five years and handing the trophy over to the Kop. Nice screenplay, but too fanciful.

It ain't going to happen - next Sunday, any Sunday, in a month of Sundays. Liverpool were desperately close to the title under Brendan Rodgers in 2014, but when they needed City to slip up in the final week, Villa came to town and got rolled over 4-0. It might not be so emphatic this time, but Gerrard's players simply aren't good enough to stop the Blue Moon rising again.