Liverpool-City showdown a clash of EPL titans

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This article was published 08/03/2024 (919 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There are certain dates you circle on the calendar as soon as the schedule comes out. They might be rivalry showdowns, title-deciders or occasions involving some of the best players and personalities in the game.

Then there are the dates, such as Sunday, March 10, that get the three-circle treatment. Not just from fans, pundits and broadcast executives.

Liverpool and Manchester City must have known back in the summer that, sooner or later, and most likely in their second clash of the season, they’d have to settle the 2023-24 Premier League amongst themselves.

Well, here we are.

Only a point apart atop the standings, two of the campaign’s three realistic contenders — third-place Arsenal being the other — will have 90 minutes Sunday (10:45 a.m., FuboTV) to gain a sliver of separation as the fixture list nears its conclusion.

As rivalries go, Liverpool-City is not a traditional one, although together the pair has been English football’s dominant duopoly for the better part of a decade. They’ve won the previous six titles (five by City) and have contested five of the past six Champions League finals, winning twice.

This is an enmity of aesthetics, purely about the football. Yes, there’s often a chance at silverware awaiting the victor, but the stylistic elements, at least for the neutral, are at least as compelling as the very recent history in which these clubs have been simultaneously successful.

That’s the first circle.

What makes this weekend’s encounter even more tantalizing is that, apart from their own players and staff, nobody really expected Liverpool to be involved in the title race this late in the winter.

They came fifth last term, after all, finishing four points back of Newcastle and a whopping 22 adrift of champions City. Then they decided to get younger. And an injury bug they’re just now beginning to shake decided they’d get a lot younger yet.

In last month’s Carabao Cup final, which they won, Liverpool kicked off at Wembley missing 10 first-team players. That they still beat Chelsea was down to squad depth, the quality of youngsters coming through the system, and manager Jurgen Klopp’s expertise at blooding prospects into his teams.

The Reds will still be without a handful of preferred starters at Anfield on Sunday, but they’ll be boosted by the healthy and in-form Darwin Nunez as well as the return of £60 million midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai. And Mohamed Salah’s comeback from a hamstring injury picked up at the Africa Cup of Nations could hardly be more timely.

City, on the other hand, were always going to be making a push for a record fourth successive Premier League crown. They should really be tipped to grab it, what with their 20-match unbeaten run over four competitions since they were last beaten back in early December.

Yet, even after winning the treble last spring, they’ve almost kept themselves in the shadows this campaign, as if they’d rather sneak up on their opponents than beat their chests as they inevitably vanquish them. It’s quiet confidence, literally.

In only two games this calendar year has City’s defence conceded more than a single goal. Considering that they shipped 12 in six matches between November and December, it would seem they’ve decided to shut things down at the business end of the season. Which is what champions, and champions-to-be, tend to do.

That’s the second circle.

The third circle, finally, was re-traced with a highlighter Thursday when Liverpool right-back-turned-midfielder Trent Alexander-Arnold and Manchester City striker Erling Haaland traded jabs in the media

Alexander-Arnold, who will miss the upcoming contest with a knee injury, took the first swing when he told Four Four Two that, although City had “won more titles” and “probably been more successful” than the Reds in recent times, Liverpool’s trophies “mean more” because “of the situations at both clubs.”

It was a not-so-subtle swipe at the Citizens’ dealings in transfers, wages and sponsorships that the Premier League alleges have breached financial regulations more than 100 times, and for which a preliminary hearing has been set.

Haaland quickly hit back, joking in an interview with Sky Sports that Alexander-Arnold didn’t know how it felt to win the treble.

“I don’t think he knows exactly this feeling. So, that’s what I felt last season. It was quite nice,” he said.

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Another sub-plot to Sunday’s match has been provided by Klopp, who in January revealed that he’d be stepping down as Liverpool boss at season’s end. This, then, will be his final Premier League meeting with opposite number Pep Guardiola, and the symbolic end of an era.

Hired four months apart, the two have taken their clubs to impressive heights these last eight years, propelled by superstars such as Salah, Sadio Mane, Virgil van Dijk, Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Sergio Aguero and, yes, Alexander-Arnold and Haaland. To those six titles and two Champions Leagues they can also add six league cups, three FA Cups and two Club World Cups – a remarkable achievement.

Put it all together and those three circles around Sunday still might not be enough. Given the teams, the stakes, the people and the weight of an entire period of Premier League history, a fourth might be in order.

jerradpeters@gmail.com

X: @JerradPeters