Erling Haaland could feature for Manchester City in today’s crucial Premier League clash against Liverpool as he battles to recover from a groin injury. The prolific striker, who has scored 42 goals in all competitions this season, missed Norway’s two Euro 2024 qualifiers during the recent international break.
Haaland has scored six hat-tricks in 19 appearances at City’s Etihad Stadium this season, including eight goals in his last two games against RB Leipzig in the Champions League and a FA Cup quarter-final win over Burnley. “Erling is recovering. We’ll see this afternoon in training and we will see how he feels,” City boss Pep Guardiola told reporters yesterday. “Yesterday I spoke with him and he feels good. But we will see.”
Guardiola has a difficult balancing act ahead of a season-defining period for City. They trail leaders Arsenal by eight points, but have a game in hand and are still to host the Gunners in April.
Before then, City face Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals, the one major trophy missing from Guardiola’s time in charge of the club. “Life is risk in these stages. You have to take it,” added Guardiola on whether he would roll the dice on playing Haaland. “We’ve scored a lot of goals this season. He scored an incredible amount of goals. But in the past, we always scored a lot of goals.”
City will definitely be without England midfielder Phil Foden, who underwent surgery to remove his appendix last week. City and Liverpool have finished as the Premier League’s top two in three of the past four seasons.
But after a series of title fights, Liverpool head to the Etihad 19 points adrift of Guardiola’s men, down in sixth place. However, Jurgen Klopp’s side did win 1-0 when the sides met at Anfield earlier this season. “Liverpool remain an exceptional team,” added Guardiola. “My opinion doesn’t change for a season that’s had its up and downs. Every team can have these up and downs.”

Liverpool target top four
Jurgen Klopp, meanwhile, remains adamant a game usually vital to the destiny of the title for both clubs still retains major significance for his team, as well as City. “Super important game, that’s the one thing that’s not different to all the other years because obviously for us super important, for City super important,” Klopp told reporters said. Liverpool’s trip to the Etihad begins a daunting week for Klopp’s men as they travel to Chelsea on Tuesday and then host league leaders Arsenal at Anfield next Sunday. Liverpool are seven points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham, but with two games in hand on the north Londoners.
“Top four is the one thing we really can go for. We don’t have a perfect position to go there, to fight for it, but it’s possible,” added Klopp. “We have to win a lot of games but the more games we win, the more pressure we can make on other teams above us in the table. A lot of talk now, but in the end it is all about how we perform, how we get into this mood - a chasing mood - and go from there.”
Liverpool’s 1-0 victory over City in October provided false optimism that Klopp’s men could match the levels that saw them come close to an unprecedented quadruple last season. Another misleading result came earlier this month when Manchester United suffered a historic 7-0 thrashing at Anfield.
Liverpool have lost their two games since, suffering a shock 1-0 defeat at lowly Bournemouth and losing by the same score at Real Madrid as they exited the Champions League.

Arteta hopes Saliba can return for Arsenal’s title run-in
Mikel Arteta said he hopes Arsenal defender William Saliba can return from his back injury in time to play a key role in the climax to the Premier League title race. Saliba limped off during Arsenal’s Europa League last-16 second leg defeat against Sporting Lisbon and missed the win over Crystal Palace before the recent international break.
The French centre-back, who had played every league game this season until his injury, will remain sidelined for Saturday’s clash with Leeds. But Gunners boss Arteta believes he could still feature for the Premier League leaders in the coming weeks as they chase a first title since 2004.

Fixtures (1400 GMT
unless stated)
Today: Manchester City v Liverpool (1130), Arsenal v Leeds, Bournemouth v Fulham, Brighton v Brentford, Crystal Palace v Leicester, Nottingham Forest v Wolves, Chelsea v Aston Villa (1630)
Tomorrow: West Ham v Southampton (1300), Newcastle v Manchester United (1530)
Monday: Everton v Tottenham (1900)