Just two points separate Liverpool and Man City as we head into 2024. Strap yourselves in, ladies and gentlemen, here we go again.

While Jurgen Klopp’s side might have flailed in both 2020/21 and 2022/23, they have repeatedly emerged as Pep Guardiola’s side’s fiercest rivals since the Spaniard first took over at the Etihad in 2016. Currently top of the Premier League table, they have seemingly put last year’s transitional struggles behind them to re-emerge as such again.

Under Klopp, the Reds have won every major honour going – though every success has, to date, only been singular. Meanwhile, Guardiola’s men can now boast the same after winning the FIFA Club World Cup earlier this month, but while boasting multiple Premier League titles and domestic cup triumphs.

City’s world-conquering exploits in Saudi Arabia have left them trailing in this year’s title-race, courtesy of playing a game less than their rivals. Yet, by playing before both Liverpool and Arsenal in gameweek 20, a 2-0 victory over Sheffield United saw them leapfrog the Gunners into third on goal difference.

 

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Only Aston Villa’s late 3-2 win at home to Burnley stopped them from claiming second, with Klopp’s side ahead of the Villans on goal difference while boasting a game-in-hand. Meanwhile, they are still two points clear of both City and Arsenal after 19 games played ahead of their meeting with Newcastle United on New Year’s Day.

Progressing into the second half of the season, Liverpool are well aware of what happens next as City look to usurp them. With both sides repeatedly emerging stronger after the festive period and perfectly capable of putting together lengthy unbeaten runs in the process, title-charges start here.

When both sides have gone the distance in the title-race, they have taken it to the final day of the season with the Reds cruelly missing out by a solitary point on two occasions. In contrast, the one season City standards dropped, Liverpool enjoyed their most successful ever league season to end their 30-year wait to be crowned champions of England in 2020.

There is a great respect between both sides’ managers as a result, with Klopp and Guardiola’s rivalry predating English football back to when the pair battled in Germany in charge of Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. Elsewhere, things are a little more fierce and bitter.

Supporters of both clubs have made headlines for the wrong reasons on more than one occasion when Liverpool and City lock horns, including for missile throwing and tragedy chanting, with Greater Manchester police ruling that last month’s meeting between the two sides had to take place at 12.30pm on a Saturday as a result.

Meanwhile, the City squad themselves were infamously recorded singing an inappropriate and distasteful chant at Liverpool’s expense on their team bus back in 2019, while their half-hearted guard-of-honour when the Reds played at the Etihad after winning the Premier League the following year did not go unnoticed.

There is respect and friendship across enemy lines in some cases, between international colleagues and former team-mates for example. But a scrap between Raheem Sterling and Joe Gomez when away with England days after a 3-1 Liverpool win over Man City in November 2019 demonstrates they’re not all bosom buddies either.

Consequently, the rivalry is complex, with neither manager wanting to fuel the flames to help inspire their closest title-rival. Yet according to one report, the unsavoury nature of the relationship stems from before Klopp, Guardiola, and both sides’ emergence as title challengers.

Back in the summer of 2008, Liverpool unsuccessfully tried to sign Gareth Barry from Aston Villa while Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi United Group completed their takeover of Man City and made Robinho their first marquee signing. That season, Rafa Benitez’s side would finish second in the Premier League, narrowly missing out on the title to Manchester United, while City would finish 10th.

Yet come the summer of 2009, despite Liverpool still being interested in Barry, it was Man City who won his signature. Completing a £12m move to the Etihad, the England international was part of an £120m spending spree, and would go on to play his part in the club winning the FA Cup in 2011 (their first trophy under Sheikh Mansour’s ownership) and their maiden Premier League title in 2011/12.

In contrast, the Reds would embark on a temporary decline, competing for the Premier League title and qualifying for the Champions League just once before Klopp’s Anfield transformation in 2017/18. But neither club knew that at the time of Barry’s transfer in 2009, with Benitez making his feelings known, albeit perhaps rather bitterly, on missing out on his long-time target.

“Maybe it’s just me but in this market, the top level, I don’t think money is the most important thing,” the Spaniard said at the time. “At this level everyone earns big money.

“The question is do you make the right decisions and do what is best for your career? If it’s just for money sometimes you will make mistakes and I’ve been surprised by some decisions this summer – like Barry.

“I won’t say too much but it was clearly 100% for money. The most important thing for me, though, is the passion of the players.”

Last month, the Athletic would report how such comments from Benitez had angered Man City officials, with their sources pointing towards the episode as ultimately initiating the rivalry we see between the two sides today.

Since then, comments from John W. Henry and Ian Ayre on City’s £400m stadium naming rights deal with Etihad Airways in 2011, Peter Moore on their transfer spending in 2017, and Jurgen Klopp on their financial power under Arab ownership last season have all not gone down well in the Etihad boardroom.

Meanwhile, Liverpool agreed a £1m settlement with City in 2013 after an alleged hacking of their Scout7 recruitment database. This was paid without the club or the accused individuals accepting any liability or wrongdoing, with the FA announcing in 2019 that the Reds would face no disciplinary action due to the ‘age of the alleged concerns’ and the settlement between the two clubs.

But it is still another controversial episode the two clubs have found themselves embroiled in since City’s overnight transformation into one of the richest teams on the planet. No wonder relations between the two remain fragile.

So, here we are again. Liverpool and City at the top of the Premier League table, competing to be crowned champions of England once more. Aston Villa might sit between them, with Arsenal capable of overtaking both on Sunday, but the English top-flight’s fiercest rivalry is reclaiming centre stage.

City will be favourites to be crowned champions once again, of course, but the Reds know what it takes to usurp Guardiola’s men. And with two points separating them at the Premier League’s midway point, the race to the finish line in May starts here.