There's a throbbing sense of deja vu concerning the closing stages of this season's Premier League.
As teams towards both the top and bottom flounder in pursuit of points, and those in mid-table inevitably lose some focus with the finishing line in sight, so Manchester City and Liverpool continue to trade win after win after win.
Except, of course, the problem for the Reds is what has gone before means they face an increasingly difficult task to qualify for the Champions League, rather than compete with City for the title.
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Arsenal have discovered in recent weeks the sheer mental - let alone physical - strength required to withstand the inevitable charge of Pep Guardiola's side.
And barring an unlikely collapse from City in the next fortnight, Liverpool will remain the one team capable of keeping pace - or overcoming - them since Guardiola negotiated his first season in England some seven years ago.
Regardless of whatever transpires over the remainder of the campaign, City are the only side who can still better Liverpool's strong end to the campaign, the Reds having taken 22 points from the last 24 with two matches to go. City, of course, can claim a 100% record in that same timespan having claimed 11 successive top-flight victories.
It continues the trend for Jurgen Klopp's men of producing results at the business end of the term. In the previous four seasons, only once have Liverpool dropped more than four points during the closing 10 games, when they took 20 from the available 30 in 2019/20 having long claimed a runaway championship triumph.
City, Manchester United and Chelsea were able to better Liverpool's figure that term. Otherwise, of the established big six - before Newcastle United elbowed their way in this season - only City in 2018/19 have finished a campaign stronger than the Reds during that four-year period, which was sufficient for them to edge the title by a point.
While Liverpool still need either Manchester United or Newcastle United to falter over their final three games to have any chance of Champions League qualification this term, there have been signs of both teams wobbling. Each have dropped eight points in their last seven Premier League games.
Consider this. In the 22 Premier League games both Arsenal and Liverpool have played since the resumption of the season after the World Cup, the Gunners have taken only one more point, 44 compared to 43.
For comparison, City, having played a game fewer, have racked up 53 points. Manchester United have 40 from 21 games, with Newcastle on 36 from 20. Perhaps the surprise big movers have been Aston Villa (39 points from 21 games) and Brighton (37 points from 20 games), while the problems of Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea are underlined by taking 28 points and 22 points respectively, both from 21 matches.
It may ultimately not be enough to snatch a top-four place. But Liverpool are once again showing they know how to finish a season under Klopp.
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