Manchester City vs Liverpool: Who deserves the crown?

The Premier League title will be decided on Sunday, but who will get it? Manchester City and Liverpool are both worthy winners, and have been strong adversaries this season. But there can only be one winner.

The champions of the 2021/22 Premier League season will be decided on Sunday. It has been a long year with twists and turns along the way, but two constants have stayed the same towards the top of the table - Manchester City and Liverpool.

Both have showed their quality this season, how they are miles ahead of everyone else in the league. And they've managed to do that while maintaining strong runs in other competitions, as well. Maybe one more so than the other.

Liverpool are of course going for the unprecedented quadruple, and need the league title and Champions League to complete it, so there's a fair amount riding on their game against Wolves on Sunday, which by no means will be straight-forward.

For City, they haven't got anything else to play for, and will want the league win just to stop Liverpool's bid of the quadruple. They'll have to beat Kopp legend Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa side on Sunday to do so, though.

So both don't have gimme-wins for their final matchups of the season. It could be anyone's title, as it should be. Both have been more than deserving of the Premier League crown this year.

But of course, there can only be one. Who will it be? Let's take a look at some statistics for the two and see who comes out on top, and that may sway your decision as to who should be champion.

 

Goals

Manchester City: 96

Liverpool: 91

 

Next year, Manchester City will have their main target man striker in Erling Haaland to bolster their attack. But it's not like they even really need him. They're fine for goal scoring as it is.

They lead the league for goals this season, and are second in Europe, just the one goal behind Bayern Munich. And on 96 goals, there is a possibility that they could once again break the century mark for the year.

Liverpool are right there with them, though. For much of the season, they were the ones on top for goals. City's recent flurry has taken them ahead of the Reds, but Liverpool still ranks third in Europe.

 

Goal difference

Manchester City: +72

Liverpool: +66

 

This is just ridiculous. That's the only way to describe their goal difference's. And they are more than likely going to get even bigger after Sunday.

Again, these numbers rival that of the 2018/19 season. There are a few similarities between this year and that one, to be honest. Especially with the table position of the sides.

 

Season xG

Manchester City: 86.1

Liverpool: 86.1

 

Of course, the expected goals metric has become one of the favourites for everyone. To see the rate a team should be on and then seeing what they got is always good fun.

For these two, they are matching for their season xG rate, which again shows how remarkable they have been.

 

 

Goals to xG difference

Manchester City: +9.9

Liverpool: +4.9

 

Obviously, there is a slight advantage for City here as they have scored five more goals so far than Liverpool, giving them a +5 advantage on the goals to xG difference.

Manchester City rank as one of the top teams in the league for overachieving, while Liverpool are also fairly high up on the list, too.

 

Average possession

Manchester City: 68.4%

Liverpool: 63.4%

 

Both sides dominate possession in any game they play. In fact, City haven't once had less possession than their opponent this season, the closest being 51% against... Liverpool!

The Reds have had less possession four times this year, and were once matched for possession by Arsenal.

Still and incredible feat by them, but City show they are slightly better at controlling the play this year.

 

Pass completion %

Manchester City: 88.2%

Liverpool: 83.4%

 

And it's what you do with the possession that is most important. Both City and Liverpool have passed rings round their opponents all season long.

City rank number one in the league for pass completion, and only four times have they had less than 85% pass completion in a game, but never lower than 81%.

Liverpool, though, for as good as their rate is, doesn't actually come in at second in the league. Or third. They rank fourth for pass completion.

 

Goals against

Manchester City: 24

Liverpool: 25

 

These two also have the most solid defenses in all of Europe, ranking number one and two for least goals conceded this season.

They have a rate of 0.65 goals against per 90 minutes for City and 0.68 for Liverpool. This is the best rate since the 2018/19 season, when there was the similar position of these two being on a level of their own compared to the rest of the league.

 

Tackles + Interceptions

Manchester City: 925

Liverpool: 1,127

 

It should come as no surprise that these two have the lowest numbers for this stat in the league. City are the only team under 1,000, and Liverpool come in three places behind.

Since they both control the majority of the possession in each game, they don't end up having to do as much defending. 

And, it's like that infamous Paulo Maldini quote: "If I have to make a tackle than I have already made a mistake".

 

Successful pressure %

Manchester City: 32.5%

Liverpool: 32.3%

 

This is the real defensive stat for the top teams. Often times, the best defense is just pressure. And these two are two of the best in the league.

Well, technically not. City are at the top, but despite it only being a 0.2% difference, Brighton have actually snuck their way up into second with 32.4%.

So Liverpool rank third for this, but that's still at the top, pretty much.

 

Save %

Manchester City: 72.3%

Liverpool: 75%

 

And finally, let's look at the goalkeepers. Both sides have their Brazilian gloves in net, Ederson for City, Alisson for Liverpool, and both are amongst the best in the world.

Ederson has had to make 56 saves from 81 shots on target this year, while Alisson has made 69 from 92. So he takes the slight victory here.