Liverpool’s recent visit to the Etihad inevitably saw two great teams cancel each other out for the most part, a nullifying of respective strengths that was punctuated by moments of high-drama and a good smattering of quality.
It was ferocious, frantic and intense and that was just on the touchline as Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp endured 96 minutes of torture. They knew what this game meant in the great scheme of things. They knew what was on the line.
And come the final whistle it was the visitors who were happiest with the outcome, a draw that kept both teams at the top of the table – for a couple of hours at least, until Arsenal played – with just a single point separating them.
All of the above is a familiar story, one that has engrossed and elevated English football in recent seasons as two truly elite sides battle it out for titles, their contrasting styles making the ten-month duels all-the-more compelling. Their brilliance and completeness making them so hard to split in the football betting.
Only on this occasion something was missing, an omission that seems odd given what we empirically know and what a third of this campaign is telling us.
At no stage was the D-word mentioned. Not even once.
The Manchester City/Liverpool duopoly began in earnest in 2018, when the red half of the duo kicked on from a highly encouraging campaign a year earlier, that saw them reach a Champions League final and justify their Premier League top four odds by finishing fourth.
That summer, Klopp went out and secured the final two pieces in his jigsaw, spending just shy of £100m on two Brazilians in Alisson and Fabinho and with a world class keeper and a superb holding midfielder bolstering an already fabulous side, Liverpool shot out of the blocks the following season and never looked like slowing down.
Come the new year, the Merseysiders were still unbeaten, having amassed 54 points from 60.
It was a ruthless consistency that City were already known for, after pulverising the rest of the field the season before, ultimately accruing an unprecedented 100 points.
They were the ‘Centurions’ and with Pep-ball fully operational they too demolished all before them in that 2018/19 campaign, right up until they suffered a surprising dip around Christmas.
It meant that when these two ridiculously good sides met at the Etihad on January 3rd, the hosts were in dire need of victory, or else it was felt they would relinquish the title to down the M62, and let’s just pause at this juncture and consider this.
So remorseless and relentless were these creations that halfway through the season their meeting was viewed as a title decider. A decider that City won after 90 unmissable minutes that will go down in the annals as one of the greatest Premier League games ever.
From this, Pep Guardiola’s side embarked on a tremendous winning spree lasting 14 matches, winning the title on the final day.
Liverpool came runner-up after losing only once all season.
In 2019/20, City sat it out, because even the finest supercars need to be garaged from time to time, and Liverpool duly romped to their first Premier League title. The season after that, the roles were reversed, the Reds taking a well-deserved catching of their breath.
But then they were both back at it again, as formidable and as fervent, and as magnificent on a week-by-week basis as before.
Come May, City again pipped their fierce rivals on the last day. This time, Liverpool missed out after losing only twice.
Across four campaigns, City accumulated 358 points and Liverpool 357, and in at least two of these seasons it was felt that whoever came out on top in their meetings would go on and lift the league trophy.
It was a duopoly quite unlike anything we have witnessed before.
Or rather it is a duopoly quite unlike anything we have witnessed before, because it’s still going. It’s just that for whatever reason nobody seems to have noticed its resumption.
In 2023/24, Liverpool are back firing on all cylinders, with Mo Salah scoring a silly amount of goals and with a defence more often than not parsimonious. To date, Klopp’s men have been defeated just once and that was determined by VAR-influenced madness in North London.
City meanwhile are being City. Staying in contention pre-Christmas. Preparing to quicken their stride thereafter. It’s what they do.
Is it because Arsenal have muddied the waters? Is that why one of the most gripping rivalries in modern times has been so prematurely abandoned, at least in narrative terms?
Or is it because Liverpool again took some time out last term, a slump that necessitated a summer overhaul of their midfield? From this, some are referring to the current set-up as ‘Klopp mkII’. Maybe that explains it.
Whatever the reason we are ignoring the obvious, the incontestable. It’s right there before our eyes at the summit of the Premier League table.
The duopoly is back, or more accurately it’s still around, because in truth it never properly went away.
*Credit for all of the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
