'My gut feeling' – Manchester United legend Gary Neville makes Liverpool v Manchester City prediction

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Gary Neville says he has a ‘gut feeling’ that Liverpool will ‘run all over’ Manchester City and inflict yet more misery on the Premier League champions this weekend.

Arne Slot has enjoyed an outstanding start to his Liverpool reign, with the Merseyside giants flying high at the top of the Premier League table ahead of Sunday’s heavyweight clash at Anfield.

Second-placed City trail the Reds by eight points having suffered a fifth straight defeat in all competitions at the hands of Tottenham last time out – the longest losing streak of Pep Guardiola's entire managerial career.

On Tuesday night, City appeared to be cruising towards their first win in a month as they stormed to an imperious three-goal lead over Feyenoord in the Champions League.

But City’s Dutch visitors managed to rescue a point after mounting a stunning late fightback at the Etihad – and Guardiola was later pictured with self-inflicted cuts and scratches all over his face while facing the media.

‘I think Liverpool versus Manchester City is really interesting. I’m doing the game and can’t wait for it because there is a lot riding on it,’ Neville said while previewing City’s must-win trip to Anfield on the latest episode of The Overlap US’ It’s Called Soccer.

‘I’ve never seen City look as vulnerable in the Pep Guardiola era.

‘Jamie Redknapp mentioned this and I thought it was a really good point, where he said that the pressure, all of a sudden, in this fixture is on Liverpool in the sense that everyone will expect Liverpool to win because everyone is beating City!

‘What will that do to Liverpool? I think Liverpool will win. Looking at City at this moment in time, when you feel that intensity and passion that Liverpool have, I think they could run all over them is my gut feeling.

‘But there is that Pep Guardiola, these group of players have achieved a lot in this last four, five years, you could never write them off.

‘Is this the day that basically they’re poked that much that they stir and something happens? It could be but my feeling is that Liverpool will win this game.

‘But the pressure, I think, is on Liverpool to win, more than it is on City to win because of what has happened.

‘It’s mad to think that City have lost all those games in a row, it’s intriguing and I’m looking forward to it already.’

City’s ‘spectacular’ 4-0 thrashing at home to Tottenham further convinced Neville that ‘something is very different’ with Guardiola’s side this season.

‘It was spectacular, it was absolutely spectacular,’ the former Manchester United and England right-back added.

‘I’ve been going to City now for six, seven, eight, nine, ten years and, for most of that, just thinking: it’s a foregone conclusion, in fact it has become a little bit boring. You’re basically looking one way during a game because they’ve got 75 per cent possession.

‘But something is very different this season and, on Saturday, I have to say I expected City to win, I expected them to reset after the international break, I expected them to be really serious and Pep Guardiola to have said, “Come on, we’re going to go for five in a row!”, and it’s not there.

‘The legs aren’t there, the energy, a bit of the quality as well is missing, but there’s something not right.

‘It’s good for the league and good for us to see as well, I think, but Tottenham were spectacular, they were brilliant.’