Manuel Pellegrini will be hoping that his boys can get their confidence back by beating Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday

Manchester City Football Club had to endure a difficult week after losing their crunch Champions League clash against Barcelona at the Etihad Stadium. The Citizens were undone by a quickfire Luis Suarez brace that almost put the game beyond any doubt. A Sergio Aguero goal gave City some hope in the tie but things could have been much more worse had Lionel Messi converted from the spot late on in the game. Our Champions League hopes are  almost in shreds thanks to a very disappointing performance against Barcelona but that’s something that we can talk about later because all that matters right now is our next fixture which is a difficult away assignment against Liverpool.

Joe Hart made a great save from a 93rd minute Lionel Messi penalty to keep the Citizens Champions League hopes alive

Manuel Pellegrini and his backroom staff need to make sure that our disappointing loss against Barca bears no lasting effect on the players and their confidence ahead of what is a crunch clash at Anfield. Chelsea are not in Premier League action this weekend thanks to their participation in the Capital One Cup final. Hence, this gameweek would be a fantastic opportunity to claw back some of the ground that we lost to Mourinho’s men. A win over Liverpool would get us to within two points of Chelsea which would definitely add some pressure to the Londoners who would be stuck with a game in hand. In terms of team news, Fernandinho is expected to return to the starting line-up and his return to action would be a welcome addition indeed. Yaya Toure is another man who will definitely return to the starting XI after missing the Barca game due to suspension. City boss Manuel Pellegrini actually has the luxury of being able to call up anyone he likes from his whole squad as City are currently enjoying a very fortunate spell where they have no players sidelined by injury. Wilfried Bony will also hope to be given a prolonged spell out on the pitch as the Ivorian has played only 52 minutes since moving to the Etihad from Swansea City. Defensively, Vincent Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala are expected to be the preferred centre back pairing while Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy may just be the first choice full backs.

Sergio Aguero scored in the 69th minute in our game against Barcelona to halve the deficit

Our preparations for the game against Liverpool would have been absolutely perfect had we not lost against Barcelona. Our opponents preparations on the other hand though have been anything but ideal. Liverpool played 120 minutes of football on Thursday night and then travelled all the way back home from Istanbul only to reach England in the wee hours of Friday. With Saturday the only training day before today’s crunch clash against us, fatigue may very well be an issue with their squad. Fatigue may indeed be the deciding factor in the game but what we cannot do is expect an easy affair. There is a lot riding on today’s match especially because we can close the gap between ourselves and Chelsea, but even more importantly, a win over Liverpool at Anfield would give us one terrific morale boost after the mentally draining defeat that we succumbed to against Barcelona on Tuesday night.