The last dance: Legendary coaches face off for final time in Premier ...

Manchester City and Liverpool.

Premier League clashes – or any sporting match for that matter – don’t get much bigger than this.

There are 11 rounds remaining in the league, but you get the feeling that this weekend’s match could prove crucial to deciding who lists the trophy. The fixture has certainly done so in the past.

As Manchester City star Phil Foden put it simply this week: “It’s massive … It’s games we want to play in, the biggest games and the biggest occasions, so hopefully, we will be ready for it.”

City defender Manuel Akanji said: “It definitely will be massive. The winner will go to the top of the league. I don’t want to talk about the title race but it would be a big win for us.”

City are the reigning Premier League, Champions League, and FA Cup winners. This year, they’ve already won the UEFA Super Cup and the Club World Cup – meaning they hold five titles simultaneously.

It is hard to argue that there is a better team in world football.

Former 296-game Man City player Richard Dunne said after their 3-1 win over FC Copenhagen today booked their place in the Champions League quarterfinals: “Match them up against any team in Europe and I just think they’re better than them!”

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Close behind them, though, are the Reds. Last season saw them slump to a fifth-place finish in the league, some 22 points behind City, meaning for the first time in six years they aren’t in the Champions League this campaign.

Yet Liverpool have already won the League Cup after beating Chelsea just a couple of weeks ago, and are alive in the Europa League, FA Cup, and of course the Premier League.

Both teams are not just chasing one trophy this season, but multiple. That has so often been the case for these two heavyweights in recent years.

But this meeting is special.

It is the last dance between Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, two iconic managers who have arguably today’s greatest rivalry in football.

Sure, Guardiola’s protege Mikel Arteta and his Gunners are in the title race. They came close last year, and next week will face City in another huge ‘six pointer’ in the fight to be Premier League champions.

But the Gunners have not won the title since the Invincibles of 2003-04. They haven’t reached a Champions League semi-final since 2007-08. They remain a team on the rise rather than a consistent, dominant force – though a Premier League win would confirm their ascent into the elite.

Since Guardiola took over in 2016, City have won 14 trophies. Klopp took over the Anfield side a year earlier, and has won seven in that time. City have won five of the last six league titles – with Liverpool the only team to stop the juggernauts in that time.

It is the greatest rivalry of the modern English game.

As Liverpool great Jamie Carragher said in 2022, the feud is: “the best we’ve ever had in English football … We’ve never had the two best teams & managers in the world together fighting it out.”

THE COACHES

Jurgen and Pep: two masters of attacking football in the modern game.

The pair have faced each other a whopping 29 times – for both men, it’s the most matches they’ve ever taken charge of against a specific manager.

The record is razor-thin: Klopp has won 12, Guardiola 11, with six draws.

No manager has more wins against Klopp than Guardiola – and the reverse is true.

Besides Klopp, Guardiola has won more matches than he’s lost against every other manager he’s faced more than three times, except Antonio Conte (at Chelsea and Spurs, Conte won four times and lost three against Pep’s City). Klopp, of course, has faced his rival in 22 more games than Conte did.

When it comes to trophies, Guardiola outmuscles his rival by some distance: 35 to 13.

Their rivalry began in Germany, where Klopp was in charge of Borussia Dortmund and Guardiola Bayern Munich. Klopp won the first meeting in the DFB Super Cup in 2013, 4-2. They would face off eight times in total across two years in Germany, with the pair having four wins apiece and Klopp winning two of the three meetings in cup finals.

In England, they have faced off 21 times. Klopp has won eight games, Guardiola seven, with six draws.

And while the rivalry has often been heated on the field – more on that below – off the field has been a different story.

The pair have an immense respect for each other.

Ahead of a meeting in April 2022, Klopp called Guardiola the “best coach in the world”.

Guardiola said in his own press conference ahead of that game: “Jurgen, as a manager, has been the biggest rival I’ve ever had in my career.”

He added: “I will remember my period here, when I’m retired watching and playing golf, I’ll remember my biggest rival was Liverpool, for sure.”

And when Klopp announced that this season would be his last at Liverpool, Guardiola paid a touching tribute.

“He’s an absolutely incredible manager and I know I don’t know him closely but he’s an incredible person. I had a feeling that at the end of the season when he is leaving, part of us, Man City, is leaving too. They have been our biggest rival, Liverpool in these years,” he said.

“Personally, in Dortmund and here, he’s been my biggest rival, so he will be missed. Personally, I will miss him,” before adding that he’ll “sleep better” the night before a Liverpool game with Klopp out of the picture.

THE MEETINGS

When City and Liverpool met earlier this season at the Etihad, they produced an instant classic – true to form for what has been a battle of iconic proportions for the last half-decade.

After Guardiola took over City in 2016 – the season after Klopp arrived at Anfield – the pair faced off in the Premier League for the first time in December. City dominated possession, but Liverpool won 1-0.

Not a single Liverpool player remains from their starting XI in that match – though Trent Alexander-Arnold was on the bench – while Kevin de Bruyne and John Stones have gone on to become crucial figures in City’s enduring success under Guardiola.

Since that first clash, the teams have delivered epic encounters time and again.

In 2017-18, they did battle for the only time in the Champions League, a two-leg clash in the quarterfinals.

Liverpool won the first leg 3-0 in one of Klopp’s most celebrated nights at Anfield. Mohamed Salah led the way – as he often does – with the Reds scoring three times in the first 31 minutes to blow City away. They also claimed victory in the second leg, dumping City out – and getting revenge for City’s bruising 5-0 win in the league that season.

City would hit 100 points in the Premier League to win by a massive 18-point margin. Liverpool, meanwhile, would finish as runners-up in the Champions League.

The next season delivered one of the greatest Premier League games of all time.

In January 2019, Liverpool travelled to City seven points clear in the title race.

Sadio Mane shot early in the game struck the post, before City defender John Stones’ clearance slammed into goalkeeper Ederson. As the ball bounced towards the goal, Stones – a former Everton player – raced back and pulled off the most miraculous of goal line clearances. Indeed,

Goal line technology showed that the ball was just 11 millimetres from fully crossing the line.

City went on to win the game 2-1 – and then went on to win the title by a lone point.

11 millimetres: On such slender margins are titles won and lost.

Liverpool finished with 97 points – the most ever from a second-placed team in the Premier League or any of Europe’s top leagues.

This time around, Liverpool enter the clash with a slender one-point advantage. A win would take them four clear, a potentially powerful moment in the title race. A City win would shuffle up the order at the top of the table – while a draw would open the door to third-place Arsenal. It’s all to play for.

THE ANFIELD CURSE

For all the incredible matches between the two, one statistic stands out: City have won just once at Liverpool’s fabled stadium since 2003. The sole victory was a 4-1 in February 2021, when Jack Grealish delivered arguably his finest performance in a City shirt after having been sick all day in the lead-up to the match.

That match was also a turning point in the title race. When Liverpool led 1-0 early through Salah, City’s title bid looked done and dusted with Arsenal well clear on points.

But Liverpool gloveman Alisson made two errors and City brilliantly bulldozed their way to victory over the out-of-form Reds. The win sent a statement of intent to the Gunners – and pretty quickly they stumbled, with a rampant City surging home to win another crown.

But that match does come with a caveat – it was played without fans in the stands.

With fans present, City have won just once at Anfield in the Premier League – indeed, that 2003 victory was their only win at Anfield since 1981.

“It’s a stadium we never seem to win a lot at, so it’s going to be a challenge,” Phil Foden said.

Former City goalkeeper Shay Given told BBC Radio 5 Live: “Anfield will be bouncing on Sunday, it’s a really tough place to play.”

Ending the curse would be a huge psychological boost for City – and a major blow to Liverpool’s belief they can end City’s hunt for a fourth-straight crown.

“I think if City go there and get three points, which they can do, then they will go on to become the first team to win four Premier Leagues on the bounce,” Given added.

THE ADDED SPICE

The rivalry hit new heights this week when Liverpool’s hometown star Trent Alexander-Arnold claimed his team’s trophies ‘mean more’ than City’s given their rival’s significantly stronger financial backing.

“It’s tough,” Alexander-Arnold told FourFourTwo magazine. “We’re up against a machine that’s built to win – that’s the simplest way to describe City and their organisation.

‘Looking back on this era, although they’ve won more titles than us and have probably been more successful, our trophies will mean more to us and our fanbase because of the situations at both clubs, financially.

“How both clubs have built their teams and the manner in which we’ve done it, probably means more to our fans.”

It’s long been a criticism of Manchester City.

“I’m a good manager but I don’t win titles if I don’t have good players and good players are expensive. All the clubs spend a lot of money: Barcelona spend a lot of money, Madrid spend a lot of money, English teams spend a lot of money,” Guardiola said in 2020.

But there’s no doubt there’s a clear difference in the expenditure of the two teams.

As of last season, FIFA reports that Manchester City’s squad cost £1.1bn in combined transfer fees, while Liverpool’s cost £774.1m.

Since Jurgen Klopp arrived on Merseyside in 2015, he has spent just over 800 million pounds on players at Liverpool, but has an overall net spend of £254 million.

In that same time frame – which includes the year before Guardiola arrived at City – the Cityzens have spent £1.28bn with a net spend of £692.3m.

The Abu Dhabi-owned club has also been charged with 115 breaches of Premier League financial rules dating from 2009 to 2018, with the Premier League revealing announcing it has set a date for a private hearing – without revealing when that is.

City understandably rankled at Alexander-Arnold’s claims.

Erling Haaland told Sky Sports: “If he wants to say that, OK. I’ve been here one year and I won the treble and it was quite a nice feeling, I don’t think he knows exactly this feeling.

“So yeah, that is what I felt last season and it was quite nice.

“They can talk as much as they want, or he can talk as much as he wants. I don’t know why he does that, but I do not mind.”

It is just the latest twist in an increasingly heated rivalry.

Ahead of the April 2018 Champions League clash between the teams, Liverpool supporters hit City’s team bus with flares and bottles. So badly damaged was the bus that a replacement was required to ferry City back to Manchester.

The same occurred in late 2022, a match in which Liverpool fans were also accused of throwing coins at Guardiola.

In April 2023, City fans similarly targeted Liverpool’s bus after their resounding 4-1 league win.

That match – and the one in October 2022 – were also marred by shocking chants from some City fans referencing the Hillsborough disaster which cost the lives of 97 Liverpool fans.

While the rivalry does not have the same history as Liverpool’s bitter hatred of Manchester United, there has been increasing tension between the two camps despite the immense respect each manager shows for their opposite.

Police are on red alert over more potential clashes, formally requesting the Premier League play the match at the unusual start time of 3.45pm (local) in order to aid crowd control.

THE BIG CONCERN FOR REDS

City enter the match on a 20-game unbeaten streak and are near full strength, with winger Jack Grealish and potentially £55m winger Jeremy Doku the only two stars who could be absent. Matheus Nunes is expected to play despite suffering a horribly gruesome broken finger in midweek Champions League action.

But Liverpool have been battling a major injury crisis in recent weeks – and it only got worse on Friday when Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez both were substituted with injuries against Sparta Praha in the Europa League.

Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota and Curtis Jones are all ruled out. Ryan Gravenberch, Thiago Alcantara, Joel Matip, Stefan Bajcetic and Ben Doak will also miss the game.

But there’s a crucial boost for the Reds, with Mohamed Salah coming off the bench in the Europa League after overcoming an injury.

All told, it is perfectly poised to be a pivotal moment in this title race. The last meeting of two legendary managers with a league battle at a crucial juncture, and with the added weight of the Anfield curse – and fresh fuel added to the fire of the rivalry by Trent Alexander-Arnold.

After serving up classic matches year after year, all indications point to another famous battle between the two juggernauts of the last five years.