Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool: Premier League as it happened

That is it for IBTimes UK's live coverage of a cracking clash in Manchester. Thanks for following along.

Goodnight.

Liverpool stay one point further back in fourth, having played one match more. They are four points ahead of fifth-place Manchester United, who have two games in hand.

That result means that City head into the international break third, 12 points adrift of leaders Chelsea and two behind second-place Tottenham.

Guardiola's side face back-to-back fixtures against Arsenal and Chelsea in early April.

A thrilling draw contested by two well-conditioned and committed attacking teams.

Don't let the relatively mundane scoreline fool you - that was a real corker. A shame that it had to end really, as both sides were still attempting to push the pace right to the death.

Full-time

Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool

Sagna's cross from the byline goes to waste and Aguero sends a dipping volley into the stands.

It's all over.

Aguerooo...no!

The unmarked Argentine volleys over at the back post.

Some of the finishing in this game has been extremely suspect, to say the least. It's only added to the spectacle.

Mane is cautioned for a bad foul on Silva. Four minutes of added time for one of these teams to find a winner.

Aguero edges in front of Matip and diverts a low Silva cross wide of Mignolet's left-hand post.

Sterling lifts over Mignolet and agonisingly wide after a defence-splitting through ball from Silva.

Liverpool then counter quickly with numbers and Firmino ignores the lung-busting run of Lallana before shooting into the side netting from an acute angle.

This is truly breathless stuff.

Probably the miss of the season from Lallana, who somehow fails to tap home from six yards after Wijnaldum's lofted pass is squared nicely by Firmino.

That was an absolute sitter in every sense of the word. Firmino was already celebrating the goal.

Woodwork!

Aguero links up brilliantly with Sane before losing his footing at the vital moment. The ball falls kindly for De Bruyne, who leathers a shot against the post.

So close.

Coutinho makes way for Origi. That is Klopp's first substitution of the day.

One of the best crossers of the ball in all of Europe, for my money.

Firmino, rather than cut the ball back to a teammate, tries to catch out Caballero at his near post. A low shot crashes into the side netting.

With just under 20 minutes left to play, City draw level. Aguero finds a pocket of space to the left of Klavan and steers a fantastic low De Bruyne cross beyond Mignolet.

Goal: Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool (Sergio Aguero)

End-to-end stuff at the Etihad. Sterling draws the ire of the home fans after losing possession with a sloppy pass.

Sagna, having been waiting patiently to enter the fray for quite some time, comes on in place of the struggling Toure.

Presumably he will go to right-back, with Fernandinho pushing into midfield.

A gorgeous reverse pass from Coutinho releases compatriot Firmino. Caballero rushes out to prevent the former Hoffenheim playmaker from doubling Liverpool's advantage.

Stones heads De Bruyne's flat corner wide and lets his frustration show.

Mr 100%...

Milner, who has been booed by the City fans all afternoon, sends Caballero the wrong way from 12 yards. Emphatic penalty.

First blood to the visitors.

Goal: Manchester City 0-1 Liverpool (James Milner)

Clichy goes in high from behind on Firmino after the Brazilian is teed up by a lofted pass from Can.

He looked to make contact with the ball, but this time Oliver has no hesitation in pointing to the spot and producing a yellow card.

Penalty to Liverpool

Stones demonstrates fine positioning to block Mane's goalbound shot after a low pass from Lallana.

He also made a stellar block to deny Matip before half-time.

Aguero gets the second half underway. Can either side grab the initiative?

These two, former rivals in the Bundesliga of course, have had plenty to say to each other so far...

No goals to speak of just yet at the Etihad, but that was an entertaining first half played at a blistering pace.

Plenty of contentious penalty appeals and talking points for the pundits to discuss at the interval.

Half-time

Manchester City 0-0 Liverpool

Wijnaldum concedes a stoppage-time free-kick after barging over Fernandinho.

De Bruyne's pacy delivery flies over the head of Toure before being glanced away by Firmino.

Matip is booked for a foul on Aguero. It looked like Oliver was going to caution Klavan for a second there.

Mistaken identity?

Caballero comes to City's rescue once more with another fine stop to deny Lallana.

How have City not scored there?!

Fernandinho picks out the side netting after a excellent last-ditch challenge/debatable foul from Milner ensures that Sterling is unable to tap home Silva's cutback from close range. Aguero was also being held by Klavan.

At the other end, Firmino forces a strong one-handed save from Caballero.

It's all happening just at the moment.

De Bruyne trips Nathaniel Clyne and gives away a free-kick to the right-hand side of the City box.

Milner floats a decent ball to the back post, where Matip arrives to head wide.

Wijnaldum finds Coutinho, who cuts inside Fernandinho and curls an effort over the crossbar.

Another Liverpool penalty shout falls on deaf ears after a boisterous and skillful Wijnaldum run is halted by Toure.

That one looked more debatable, it must be said. A break in play now as Matip receives treatment after taking an accidental elbow from Otamendi straight to the face.

Caballero stands firm to deny Mane after an awful backpass from John Stones.

The Senegalese international wants a penalty for a foul by last-man Otamendi as he went to pull the trigger. Nothing given.

An amusing moment as Klopp and Guardiola debate a decision on the touchline before ending with a high five.

Toure pays for a reckless lunge on Can with a yellow card.

Mignolet throws out a foot to deny Sane and Silva blasts the rebound wide. That was a real chance.

Should he have gone for placement rather than power?

Firmino launches into a misguided tackle on Silva and promptly picks up the first yellow card of the afternoon.

Aguero, well shackled by Matip, fails to make contact with a fizzing low right-wing cross from Fernandinho.

Guardiola appeals in vain for a spot-kick.

Klavan heads a City corner into the ground after Mignolet turns a low cross from Silva behind.

A tactical foul from Can prevents De Bruyne from leading a City break. Oliver has a word but leaves his cards in his pocket.

City force a corner off Joel Matip after some uncertain defending. Liverpool survive.

Silva then picks out De Bruyne with a useful through ball but the latter moved too early. Offside.

Simon Mignolet palms away a Sane cross before the exciting German is flagged offside.

Fernandinho then makes his mark on former City stalwart James Milner in a battle of the makeshift full-backs.

Wasteful from Coutinho, who sends a free-kick sailing over the top of the 18-yard box from a dangerous position.

Emre Can's lofted forward pass towards Sadio Mane is overhit and easily gathered by Willy Caballero.

Liverpool win possession deep in City's half and Adam Lallana tumbles under minimal contact from Toure.

He wants a penalty, but Olivier is not interested. That looked like the right decision.

City begin on the front foot as Silva looks to dictate play early on.

Michael Oliver gets proceedings started. No need for any unnecessary away strips here. It's sky blue vs red all the way.

City will kick from left to right in this first half, with the harsh glare from the floodlights puncturing the late afternoon gloom in rainy Manchester.

The teams emerge from the tunnel and we are almost ready to get underway.

That latest triumph for Tottenham also means that Cit, unless they win by 10 goals, cannot move up to second with a win today.

The final whistle has sounded at White Hart Lane, where Tottenham have beaten Southampton by two goals to one.

Mauricio Pochettino's men took an early lead through Christian Eriksen and Dele Alli later doubled their advantage from the spot.

James Ward-Prowse reduced the deficit shortly after the interval, but Spurs, minus Harry Kane of course, held on to extend their run of home league wins to 10. The gap between them and London rivals Chelsea is back down to 10 points.

When these two teams last met at Anfield on New Year's Eve, Georginio Wijnaldum headed home an early Adam Lallana cross to keep Liverpool within six points of dominant leaders Chelsea.

An inexplicable January collapse then saw the club go from title contenders to fighting just to make the top four.

Liverpool will have fond memories of their last visit to this ground. In November 2015, with Klopp's reign still in its infancy, an own goal from Eliaquim Mangala and further efforts from Philippe Coutinho, Firmino and Martin Skrtel secured a 4-1 win and prevented City from returning to the top of the table.

As per Opta, that is their only win in the last seven league meetings at the Etihad. City have lost five of the last six top-flight clashes in total and are without a clean sheet in their last 12 matches against Liverpool in all competitions.

Injury-plagued captain Kompany made the last of his six appearances in 2016-17 almost two months ago and he was also omitted from the matchday squad for games against Middlesbrough and Monaco despite training and travelling with his teammates.

Explaining his continued absence earlier this week, Guardiola has this to say...

The reason why is because he didn't play games because he was injured. He was a long time injured and sometimes he has arrived and been injured again. It was a risk, I wanted to be sure.

Now he is going to the national team to play more minutes. I wanted to be sure he can compete from the beginning, don't waste one game because he cannot play 90 minutes, or maybe when we play the last 15, 20 minutes he's injured again.

I would like a little bit more time to be sure. But, of course, we are so happy he is fit.
It was our desire from the beginning of the season but he was not fit. There are a lot of processes, a lot to do when you are not involved.

Sometimes you need to see he understand that to do that. The first step is to be fit to make a training session and in the last two weeks he's been there.

It is worth noting that Kompany has actually been left out of Roberto Martinez's Belgium squad for matches against Greece and Russia.

Firmino replaces Origi in Liverpool's only change. The Belgian is deemed fit enough for the bench, however.

Ragnar Klavan surprisingly keeps his place ahead of Lovren, who is also named among the visiting substitutes as Joe Gomez and young Harry Wilson drop out.

Teenage forward Ben Woodburn will hope to play some part following a memorable week in which he was handed his first senior international call-up by Wales boss Chris Coleman.

Guardiola makes two changes to the team beaten by Monaco, with Bacary Sagna and Aleksandar Kolarov making way for Otamendi and Toure.

Fernando, Nolito and Aleix Garcia come onto the bench as Pablo Zabaleta, Jesus Navas and Fabian Delph drop out of the matchday squad altogether.

Still no Vincent Kompany for City either. It looks as if Fernandinho will be deployed as a right-back.

Toure is set to anchor the midfield and allow a potent quartet of Leroy Sane, David Silva, Raheem Sterling and Sergio Aguero to flourish.

The teamsheet has landed...

As well as becoming the first team ever to seal a top-flight double against a side led by Guardiola, victory for Liverpool today would also see the Catalan suffer six league defeats in the same season for the very first time as a manager.

Klopp's men have won just one of their six away matches to date in 2017, however - a narrow 1-0 FA Cup replay triumph at League Two Plymouth Argyle.

Klopp has also been left sweating on the fitness of Divock Origi, who was pictured back training at Melwood on Friday after sitting out most of the week.

"The icing on the cake is that Divock Origi was off yesterday because he felt a little bit – probably not serious but in our situation we have to be really sensitive," the manager said at his pre-match press conference. "That's what we did. We will see if he can be involved today or tomorrow, but it's not 100%."

Neither Adam Bogdan nor Danny Ings will play again this season, meanwhile. Young midfielder Ovie Ejaria ruptured his syndesmosis - a ligament positioned between the shin bone and ankle - during a shock FA Cup defeat by Wolverhampton Wanderers in January.

For Liverpool, captain Jordan Henderson remains sidelined with a foot injury and Daniel Sturridge has yet to recover from a fresh hip problem sustained while he was working his way back from a virus.

Neither player will feature for England during their upcoming double-header against Germany and Lithuania, although Jurgen Klopp is hopeful that his skipper will return in time for a post-international break Merseyside derby against Everton at Anfield.

Roberto Firmino is expected to be fit after a thigh issue suffered against Arsenal that forced him to miss the win over Burnley, while Dejan Lovren is also available again after starting and coming through 75 minutes unscathed for Mike Garrity's U23s in a 2-0 victory over Chelsea on Monday night. He had previously been out for six weeks due to a combination of knee and back trouble.

City remain without long-term absentees Ilkay Gundogan and Gabriel Jesus this afternoon, although Nicolas Otamendi and Yaya Toure could earn recalls after both being left on the bench for that 3-1 defeat in Monaco that levelled the aggregate score at 6-6 and saw the visitors knocked out on away goals.

Good afternoon and welcome to IBTimes UK's latest live coverage of the Premier League.

Weary Manchester United moved up to fifth earlier on with a lunchtime win at Middlesbrough and Tottenham currently lead Southampton 2-0 in north London, but here our attention switches to a hotly anticipated top-four clash between Manchester City and Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.

Just one point ahead of today's opponents before kick-off - albeit with a game in hand to come - third-place City will hope to move back within 10 of dominant leaders Chelsea and recover quickly from their humbling midweek Champions League last-16 exit at the hands of high-flying Monaco.

With United now in hot pursuit, Liverpool are seeking to extend their stellar unbeaten record against other top-six teams in 2016-17. The Reds overcame Burnley in rather unconvincing fashion last weekend to record back-to-back top-flight victories and prove that they are at least somewhat capable of dispatching those so-called 'lesser' clubs.

Kick-off is at the slightly unusual time of 16.30 GMT.