Is it the greatest rivalry in the history of football? The head to head between Manchester City and Liverpool undoubtedly suggests so.
Since the Merseyside club emerged under Jurgen Klopp as genuine title contenders at the start of 2018, just a single point divides these two colossal teams in four seasons of epic combat. The stats are remarkable: in those four years, from the start of the 2018-19 season, Liverpool have played 144 league games, and taken 337 points. City, in the same number of games, have 338 points.
It is staggering: it equates to 90 points a season each over four campaigns. In the entire history of the Premier League outside these two titans, only Chelsea, three times, and Manchester United, once, have ever taken more than 90 points. And it is this incredible rivalry, this epic battle, which prompts Jurgen Klopp to suggest the two teams have inspired each other to unprecedented heights.
“I’m surprised about the numbers, to be honest. It’s massive,” he said. “They wouldn’t have the points they have if we weren’t there, and the same if the other way around. We obviously pushed each other properly, that’s the truth. It’s nice.
“If somebody would have asked me four years ago - 2018 or whenever - do you think that’s possible and you are that close? I would have said, ‘Ah, not really’. I know how people see us and them. Yes, they talk about us as a good team and blah, blah, blah, he has strikers, they are defenders, all these things. Man City is considered the best football team in the world and they got one point more than us - what does that say? Exactly.”
Klopp also believes City are the best team in the world, and it is clear he believes his Liverpool team are close enough to make the rivalry amongst the best ever; perhaps betters than United-Arsenal two decades ago, or even Barca-Real. Yet he still wants more from his players: “I think as well they are the best football team in the world but they have only one point more than us in this time. So obviously we did something right.
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“I know that. I’m happy about that but it would be better if we had 20 points more in that period then we would have one more title or won more silverware, it’s all fine how it is. That’s the basis we created, let’s go from there.”
Klopp is used to the rivalry with Pep Guardiola of course, the two enjoyed an intense match-up in Germany when he was manager of multi-trophy winning Dortmund, while his opposite number was at mighty Bayern Munich. But he believes there is a crucial difference to the current situation, which allows the Reds to compete against City, stride for side, despite their massive financial advantage, which is greater than Bayern ever enjoyed.
“The main difference between Dortmund/Bayern and Liverpool/City is that at Dortmund we lost important players every year, Bayern never. If you played an outstanding season at Dortmund, there were a lot of clubs who could be interested and very often it was Bayern themselves. That’s the difference in the situation, clearly. That’s why we could build here.
“Equal? I’m not sure. But more equal that we were with Bayern. Because we could develop and build on what we did before. We had last year which was not great but even that we could build on because we knew why it happened. I don’t care if we are equal but we are much closer than we were with Dortmund, that’s for sure.”
Sunday’s game will show if Liverpool have surpassed their great rivals, and no one will be surprised if that one point gap - this season and over the past four - turns into a two point advantage, with all its implications for the title race.
