Why Manchester City v Liverpool deserves to be in the pantheon of great football rivalries

Let’s talk about Manchester City and Liverpool shall we?

It’s the game that is being talked up around the world, it’s the one that everyone will be watching at 16:30 BST on Sunday April 10.

It promises to be an utterly exhilarating, fascinating match between arguably the best two sides in the world right now, separated by just a single point with eight Premier League games remaining.

Five years ago these teams weren’t on each other’s radar. In the 2016/17 season Liverpool and City finished third and fourth respectively as they started figuring themselves out under their new managers, who were in their first full season with their clubs. Chelsea were the dominant champions, winning 30 out of 38 games, Tottenham Hotspur were the best of the rest (finishing eight points ahead of City!).

Now Liverpool and City are not only by far and away the two best teams in England, they have forged a rivalry that has become arguably the biggest in the world right now.

Some have even gone as far as to say that it is the best rivalry that the Premier League has ever seen, better than Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal against Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in the 2000s. Your view on the best rivalry will probably come down to your age, and the team you support.

But it does lend credence to an interesting discussion about what makes a great rivalry. Traditionally the best rivalries have been built off history, games played across the ages, combined with some kind of geographical significance. But perhaps now it is time to consider that the best rivalries can also develop from a sense of competitive relevance.

Put simply, to become a great rivalry the games between the two teams have to matter. It’s what makes derbies such as the Old Firm and the Superclasico so enticing. A lot of people won’t watch a lot of Scottish or Argentine football. But they will go out of their way to watch these matches because they can often define titles. It’s what made Wenger v Ferguson - at first - so great to watch. It’s also why for a short period there was no fixture that was watched more than Guardiola’s Barcelona against Jose Mourinho's Madrid.

And despite having no history to speak of it is why we can now consider Liverpool v City as one of the best rivalries in the world right now. (Note the important distinction between rivalry and derby). This is a game that is defined by the tactical battle in the dugout, as well as the match-ups between some of the best players in the world.

It’s actually a good thing for the Premier League - well at least in some ways. The Premier League loves to market itself as the best league in the world because it is the most competitive league in the world. But for most of the past decade the team that wins the league has usually been dominant. Since the 2010-11 season only three times has the league title been won by a margin of five points or fewer. The epic 2011-12 season (City beat United on goal difference), the 2013-14 season (City beat Liverpool by two points) and the thrilling 2018-19 season (City beat Liverpool by a point). Other than that managers like Mourinho, Antonio Conte, Claudio Ranieri, as well as Klopp and Guardiola, have assembled sides that have dominated the league, although rarely for multiple seasons. The exception is Guardiola, so the Premier League has a sense of competitiveness going for it at least.

Overall what that typical dominance meant was that games between the big sides were rarely title-deciding, they were relying on historical factors or perhaps some needle between managers or players to find the hype. Normally the league leaders could afford to drop occasional points (although they rarely did). But this game could well end up being the match that decides the title, as it was a couple of years ago. From a marketing perspective the league will hope that this season becomes the norm rather than the past couple of years where injuries have badly derailed one of the contenders.

Because whilst having battles for the top four and relegation is great to watch, there is nothing like the tension that makes up a title battle. It’s what makes league football so captivating compared knockout to football. It’s part of the initial attraction for new fans to Spanish football historically and why we flocked to Italian football in the 90s and 00s. It’s also what turns people off French and German football at the moment. Even if you’re not a fan it’s intoxicating to check league tables and results each week to watch the toing and froing between title rivals.

So even though some might worry about English football becoming a duopoly, it feels as if it might actually be good for it in terms of becoming an even more captivating league. It’ll help bring in new fans and it also helps the league when it comes to being dominant in Europe. That helps clubs recruit as smaller clubs can tout it as the chance to go against the best and bigger teams can persuade players to help them get into that battle.

And for what it's worth, there’s a good chance that this duopoly is dead in the water in a year or two. There is a lot of speculation about the futures of both Guardiola and Klopp, who may walk away when their contracts expire in the next couple of years. So who knows what happens after that or how the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur develop in the near future. That is the secret to the Premier League. It’s the closest approximation to American sports where “this year can be our year.” Still only six or seven clubs can say that in England, but it’s more than any other top European league. The league thrives on the hypothetical that the rest of the big clubs can all figure things out to an extent that you can have a three-way, four-way or even more battle for the title. We haven’t really gotten there yet, but we could!

But this rivalry will be the legacy of both Klopp and Guardiola when they do leave English football, in a way that no-one could have predicted when they first arrived. Both have undeniably changed the way we see football both in terms of tactical nous on the pitch and team building off it. Their skills have forged this rivalry. The animosity City and Liverpool fans have for each other will never be as great as it is now, before or after they’re there. This is a bloodless rivalry, it’s one born out of mutual respect and talent. Even though neither will be universally loved, or even respected, in the way Ferguson was. Many will never accept Guardiola given the money he has spent, or Klopp for supposedly being nothing more than a motivator.

But both have accolades few can match and their achievements these last few years are nothing short of remarkable. They will have shared five out of six Premier League titles and will have reached three (possibly four) Champions League finals between them, winning one possibly two. As per Henry Jackson of ThisIsAnfield, since the start of the 2018-19 season Manchester City have earned 338 points and Liverpool 337. An average of 2.34 points per game. In the same time period the next highest is Chelsea at 264 points. Manchester United are next on 257 then Spurs on 246 and Arsenal on 238.

For the first time this millennium it is unquestionable that England has the two best clubs in the world. Now that is partly down to the downturn of some European giants but it is also down to the work done by the two managers as well as the players themselves.

So no matter where these two clubs and managers go in the future, enjoy the next 18 months or so at least. These sort of titanic clashes are not a given in sport, you need to enjoy them to the full when they’re here. So book your afternoon (or whenever it may be where you are in the world) and sit down and take it all in. These sort of rivalries are special, and they are part of what makes us fall in love with the sport.