The Warm-Up: Merseyside beats Manchester on aggregate but London leads the way

The 2009/10 season is quite the anomaly: it’s the only time in the English league’s 129-year history that three London teams gatecrashed the top four. Yesterday was billed by the broadcasters as Merseyside v Manchester, but it’s harder than ever to ignore the red, white and blue within the M25 – and the weekend belonged to the capital.

Before Liverpool and Manchester United wrestled to a draw at Old Trafford, and Manchester City were gleefully eviscerated at Goodison Park, business had already been taken care of by the London trio of Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal: 11 goals scored without reply, enhancing their combined run to 23 wins from their last 30.

Liverpool were minutes away from taking a win, of course, and shouldn’t be left out of the title equation but the other three contenders have long-term plans for staying there. Their houses are quite literally in order, too: Arsenal’s bank account has been swelled by Emirates income for long enough to persuade Spurs – and, eventually, Roman Abramovich – to upsize to new 60,000-seater homes.

There will be a Manchester resurgence but, for now, that curious statistical one-off of 2009/10 looks set for some capital gains.

Pep Guardiola was in a resigned mood at Goodison Park. Are his slip-sliding team out of the title race, he was asked. “Yes. The first one is a 10-point gap and that is a lot. The second one is three points, so we have to see. I spoke with the players for the last three weeks to forget about the table.”

Guardiola, for all his recent chippiness, was happy to bear the burden of turning City’s fortunes around – four defeats in their last eight Premier League games – but his characteristic candour came with a note of exhaustion at the task on his hands.

He was less forthcoming in criticising his beleaguered defence, though, as the Guardiola way is to insist that the collective are responsible for what happens at either end of the pitch. Nonetheless, the painful combination of ageing liabilities (Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna, Pablo Zabaleta) and expensive misfits (Nicolas Otamendi, John Stones) have made City look eminently beatable, a feeling rubber-stamped by the ghost that is Claudio Bravo as a last line of defence.

Their club managers will be crossing off the days on the calendar until they return home safely and as soon as the competition format allows but, for now, Sadio Mane and Riyad Mahrez are already in top gear at the Africa Cup of Nations.

The continent’s top three players all hit the ground running this weekend, although Mane’s Senegal succeeded where Algeria and hosts Gabon failed in capitalising on their star man’s contribution to secure three group-stage points.

The breadth of talent at the Cup of Nations renders it a compelling parallel spectacle to the Premier League’s title race. There are no Golden Generations out in force in Gabon – rather, A-list individual talents spearheading some promising sides – but that makes for an open, intriguing competition. The opening weekend suggested that Mane, in particular, will be keeping his club manager waiting in the meantime.

N’Golo Kante – as is the custom these days – will have been slightly wary of his return to the east Midlands this weekend. Despite his superhuman contribution to Leicester’s increasingly surreal title win last season, he was guaranteed at least a smattering of obligatory boos at the King Power. Nothing he couldn’t handle, of course, but there was still the awkward moment of the tunnel to negotiate.

What if he ran into Claudio Ranieri? Perhaps he’ll just sneak past him, and hope he isn’t spotted.

Ah.

We’ll miss Claudio when he departs by mutual consent sometime in 2017, because it’s hard to imagine a top-flight manager behaving with such unrelenting good humour and grace. And, given Leicester’s anomalous entry in Premier League history, perhaps that’s about right.

18-year-old Man of the Match Tom Davies, with his plunging sockline, had already given Everton’s cake a good icing against Manchester City by dinking the ball deliciously over Claudio Bravo for 3-0.

Then, in injury time and with City having thrown in their towel, it was time for another personal story to be capped with a goal.

The finish was as carefree and nerveless as the scoreline could accommodate, but it remained a life-affirming moment for anyone without a Man City allegiance. Lookman’s rise to the Premier League, outside of the often stifling Academy bubble, has received plenty of attention since his £11m arrival from Charlton. If that sort of gleeful cameo is what a Sunday League upbringing can produce, then top-flight scouts will be rethinking their schedules. Remember the name, and all that.

He’s a force of nature, and is likely to brush the disappointment off fairly quickly, but Sergio Ramos’ Sunday evening in Seville was an irresistible dose of footballing karma. 72 hours after Real Madrid had extended their unbeaten run to 40 games – and Ramos had angered the Sevillistas with a Copa del Rey goal celebration in the process – Zinedine Zidane’s side were back in town for the pan y mantequilla of trying to extend their advantage at the top of La Liga.

Ronaldo had rifled home a penalty to send Real well on the way to doing so, only for Cruel Irony to pop up with a late assist. In came a sumptuous cross from the right and Ramos planted a tidy header in at the near post…and beyond his own goalkeeper. Five minutes later, Stevan Jovetic curled home the winner for Sevilla and Ramos’ misery was complete.

What do we actually want from our pundits? Do we really care if they’re biased? Isn’t this great to see, (almost) whoever you support? Also, incredible self-control to not hurl that satsuma somewhere in the midst of that late-equaliser delight. He still cares, and rightly so.

Happy 36th birthday to Bobby Zamora, whose recent retirement means we can finally, officially move his goals compilation to Retro Corner.

The Ivory Coast (or Côte d’Ivoire, if you’re feeling fancy) kick off their AFCON title defence against Togo this evening, before DR Congo and Morocco complete the Group C lineup.