All eyes will be on Anfield on Sunday to see how Premier League leaders Manchester City react after being found guilty of breaking the majority of the 115 financial rules they have been accused of breaching.
“It’s a mammoth game,” said BBC Sport football expert Chris Sutton.
“Everyone is looking at this game to see if City’s players appear deflated and how much it will affect them.
“We don’t know what the implications are for this season, either. They are top of the league at the moment but will they get a massive points deduction that changes that?”
Sutton is making predictions for all 380 Premier League games this season, against AI, BBC Sport readers and a variety of guests.
For week six, he takes on Starsailor frontman James Walsh, who supports Liverpool.
Starsailor have released a 25th anniversary edition of their debut album, Love is Here, this week and are playing it in full, with a string ensemble, on their UK and European tour this month.
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A correct result (picking a win, draw or defeat) is worth 10 points. The exact score earns 40 points.
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When Love is Here was released, Liverpool had just completed an unprecedented treble of FA Cup, League Cup and Uefa Cup.
They are not holders of any trophies at the moment, but James is optimistic about winning some silverware under new manager Andoni Iraola.
“You have to be realistic whenever a new manager comes in, especially with the big signings we made last year, Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz, not hitting the ground running,” he told BBC Sport.
“I think just give him a chance to implement his way of playing football and give Isak and Wirtz a chance to prove themselves this season.
“I don’t see us winning the title but I’d be more than happy with the FA Cup or even the Carabao Cup, and having a good run in Europe.
“It’s a bit greedy but of course you do like to see your team win something every season. Three more trophies like in 2001 would be pretty good!”
Chris Sutton and James Walsh were speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.
The AI predictions were generated using Microsoft Copilot Chat – we simply asked the tool to ‘predict this weekend’s Premier League scores’.
I’ve heard people suggest that City’s players will be frazzled because of what is going on with the club off the pitch, but I don’t see it that way.
I suspect that, along with the City fans, there will be this siege mentality now where they think ‘everyone hates us, everyone wants us to lose, everyone wants us to be relegated’ – even if I don’t think that is actually the case, because there are actually a lot of balanced football fans out there.
City are likely to get a hostile reception at Anfield but I think they will be able to handle it.
Liverpool are still a work in progress under Andoni Iraola too. They have not convinced me so far when I’ve watched them this season.
Based on all of that, I am going for City here. I can just picture Erling Haaland scoring their winner, and celebrating with a big grin on his face.
Sutton’s prediction: 1-2
James on what should happen after City were found guilty of the majority of the 115 charges brought against them by the Premier League: I am not sure we should start handing out titles and cups to everyone who lost out to City during the period in question, including Liverpool. You can’t really take away those memories and emotional moments from the City players and fans, and just hand them to another team, but maybe on the official record those wins should be chalked off, or at least have an asterisk next to them.
It does also mean there is a very strange feeling around this fixture and the whole season too. City and Liverpool have had lots of huge games against each other in recent years when the title has been on the line but this time we don’t know what will happen to City and if this result will even matter in the end.
James’ prediction: This is a strange game for Liverpool because if we win then the narrative is going to be that we have beaten the cheats. If we lose, then people are just going to say well City have had this massive and unfair advantage that has played out over all these years, not just that specific period of their charges.
So, it is going to be a hard one for all 22 players to get their heads around the backdrop and compete against each other – but I still think Liverpool will win. 3-1
AI’s prediction: 2-2
