The biggest fixture in a long time, for more than one reason

This Sunday's clash between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield is shaping up to be one of the more extraordinary fixtures in recent Premier League memory, and not simply because of what's at stake in the table. City arrive having been found guilty by an independent commission of breaching financial rules across a nine-season period between 2009-10 and 2017-18, with the panel ruling they engaged in a scheme to inflate revenues and reduce costs by around £900 million. They are appealing the verdict and maintain their innocence, but Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has already called it "the most significant" case in the competition's history. Whatever your view on the rights and wrongs, the atmosphere inside Anfield on Sunday is going to be something else.

City currently sit top of the Premier League, which adds a pointed edge to the fixture from Liverpool's perspective. Andoni Iraola's side cannot afford to let the gap stretch further, and the pundits have duly noted the stakes involved. As Paul Merson put it on Sky Sports: "It's a must-not-lose game." That phrase captures the mood fairly precisely. A defeat would be damaging. A draw, whilst not catastrophic, would be questioned given City are expected to be without Erling Haaland, who picked up a knock on international duty. And a win, of course, would send an entirely different kind of message.

What the pundits are actually saying

Merson was characteristically blunt on what this match means for Iraola personally. "The pressure is on him to get that first win," he said, pointing out that not beating City at home, without Haaland in their side, would generate uncomfortable headlines. He was also direct about the points gap, arguing that nine points is a significant deficit however early the season might be: "If I said at the start of the season... who do you think wins the league, Liverpool or Manchester City? And I said, I'll have Manchester City and you've got to give me nine points head start. I'd have Manchester City over Arsenal with nine points head start. That's a lot of points." He did, however, express faith in Florian Wirtz eventually finding his feet, believing that confidence and match time will bring out the best in the German.

Alan Shearer is backing a home win, pointing to City's historically poor record at Anfield and the unique atmosphere that will greet them. "I said it would be red hot, it will be white hot, I think, in terms of how they're going to react to the situation that City are going through off the pitch," he told Betfair. Chris Sutton, writing for BBC Sport, is less convinced by Liverpool's credentials. He called it "a mammoth game" but went against the grain, predicting a City win and warning that Iraola's side have not yet fully convinced him this season. His reasoning is that City's players may well respond to the noise around the club with a siege mentality rather than crumbling under it. His predicted scoreline: Liverpool 1-2 City.

What it all means for Iraola's Liverpool

The context of City's off-field situation adds layers to an already complex picture, but the football itself is where Liverpool's focus must lie. Merson made the point that the Liverpool players are still finding their way under a new manager and that the squad's quality will eventually show. Iraola has built a reputation for getting the best out of groups that looked short of expectation, as his early work at Bournemouth demonstrated, and Sunday offers a significant opportunity to show that the same process is underway at Anfield.

With the gap already at nine points if City win, and with questions still hovering over Wirtz's form and a few injury concerns from the international break, this is a moment that carries genuine weight. Sunday will tell us quite a lot about where this Liverpool side actually are.