Man City-Liverpool: Is this a new Premier League era?
Arsenal are in the title race. Are these two? And what kind of three-way rivalry would it be?
Raheem Sterling drifted across the field in front of the Liverpool back line and picked out Leroy Sané streaking through the left channel into the box. The German took one perfect left-foot touch to set it and another to smack it skimming under Trent Alexander-Arnold’s outstretched boot and off the inside of the post, 2-1. Manchester City snatched back the lead after the Reds had equalized and set a new course for the rest of the season.
Coming into that match in March 2019, they were seven points behind. A loss at home would have sent them to their doom, but victory brought them within four points and kicked off one of the great title races in Premier League history. By the end, Liverpool had taken 97 points, the second-most by any team ever up to that point, one win short of City’s centurion season the year before. It’s just that City took 98.
Looking back, it feels like a match staged on another planet. Even the score chyron in the upper left corner looks weird. Almost none of the players involved are still wearing the same colors now. Pep Guardiola is still in the City dugout these days, but he celebrated that Sané winner back then with his chief assistant, Mikel Arteta, who was clad in a sky-blue parka. There wasn’t even VAR, just goal-line technology that proved crucial on one of the many goal-line clearances in that famous game, when Stones kept that bouncing ball out by millimeters.
Guardiola’s prime adversary in English football, Jürgen Klopp, is gone now after all those battles. City won two titles in the late 2010s and swept all before them in 2020-21, ushering Klopp’s lone league triumph in 2019-20 into ancient history. And when Liverpool came roaring back the next season to take 93 points, City took one more than them again. The Reds fell apart the next year, and the German’s long goodbye began. Pep’s relentlessness simply broke him, ground him down along with his project. When Arteta’s Arsenal stepped into the plot to challenge City in 2022-23, Pep’s team got whatever points they needed to finish above Arsenal, too.1
It was a testament to Guardiola’s complete domination of this last decade of Premier League history, as he triumphed within yet another Narrative: the master and the apprentice, the student against his old sensei. But that was just two seasons. It was the Pep v Klopp era that was defining: the two titans, the twin towers. The bloodless Sky Blue machine against the full-blooded rock-and-roll of Kloppian Liverpool.
Now it will be Arne Slot in the dugout at the Etihad Stadium this Sunday when City and Liverpool meet again at the scene of the 2019 classic. The Dutchman’s Liverpool story is remarkably different from his predecessor’s. He came in with measured expectations for his first season, then promptly romped to title glory as City and Arsenal collapsed domestically. His club built on that success with a bonanza of a summer shopping spree, dropping close to £450 million on a cadre of players who it was believed would make Liverpool’s continued success inevitable. After seven wins from seven matches across all competitions to open the campaign, the dynasty was all but confirmed. And then the next seven matches happened, and just a few whispers started to creep in about Slot’s job security.
In the end, this first stage of the 2024/25 season for Liverpool has been an object lesson in the bipolar nature of today’s football world. Everyone from Instagram commenters to newspaper columnists jumps onto the swinging pendulum each week. They condemn careers to death or conjure Ballon d’Or nominations. The truth for Slot’s Liverpool lies between the two extremes: They are a very good team who didn’t face a robust challenge last term, and they have a lot of new players to integrate who are not automatically more talented than those they replaced just because they cost big money. (Even Alexander Isak has looked mortal!) They will improve, but how much? And will it happen in time for this trip to the Etihad?
Because City will test Liverpool in a way they could not last season. They will never be the same machine they were two seasons ago without Rodri, who’s had another injury setback — following the ACL tear that essentially destroyed City’s 2024/25 season — and could miss this one. But there are signs that Guardiola has regained some of that title-chaser je ne sais quoi this season, down to the devilish comments he’ll slip in at press conferences. He relishes the lion-in-the-Serengeti role, waiting in the bushes until the hunt truly starts in February and March and April. If he can stay within touching distance of Arsenal at the top, he will believe he can chase them down yet again.
And the signs are, for now, that this new-look City team have what it takes to grind out the results through the dog days of winter. The Citizens were poor at times in the first phase of this season, and they dropped one at Villa Park towards the end of October, but they’ve quietly won eight of their last 10 in all competitions since the draw at Arsenal on September 21. They’ve scored 24 goals in that run, and while the defending has been less than solid — not least because it’s easier to get at the back line with Nico González in front of them than with Rodri — it looks like they can just outscore teams.2 It’s not dissimilar to what we saw from Liverpool in the earliest days of this campaign, except City are popping in three or four and putting games to bed, not relying on what looks in retrospect like desperation winners with the clock ticking down.
Liverpool have gotten back on the track themselves, though, seeing off Aston Villa and Real Madrid in the space of a few days. They look a little less open, less willing to get carved up and played-through. Perhaps both of Sunday’s contestants are poised to start accumulating points at a rapid rate between now and the new year. If they can both keep pace with Arsenal deep into the winter, it could make for a title contest unlike any we’ve seen. You can imagine a world where each meeting between these three would throw up thrilling tactical encounters, clashes of personalities and managerial headloss, late winners and lead changes at the top of the pile. Each time, the odd one out would watch the other two claw each other’s eyes out and smile.
Or maybe we’ll look back someday in the spring and say that neither of the two playing on Sunday were truly in it. Arsenal could be nine points clear of City and 10 clear of Liverpool when this one kicks off, and maybe this meeting of the two protagonists of the Premier League’s third decade is really a contest of also-rans. The North London club is the muscular machine now, rejecting even the suggestion of a shot on their goal as they barrel through the season thus far. Arsenal are, according to those highly aggravating statistics, The Favorites.
But the pendulum could swing once again in an instant. If Arsenal’s trip up to the Stadium of Light on Saturday goes awry, suddenly City or Liverpool are in striking distance if they can do the business one day later. You wouldn’t put it past Granit Xhaka to strike a thunderbolt for Sunderland against his old team.3 If he does, or if the Black Cats find some other way to hurt their visitors, all the familiar storylines will come crashing back into frame. The headlines will scream. The doubts will creep into Arsenal minds. It’s almost like there are seven months of football left to play, and there’s no statistic to tell you what’s next.
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A few more matches worth your time this weekend…
TOTTENHAM vs MAN UNITED
Sat @ 7:30am ET, 12:30pm UK
It’s a meeting of the Spiritually Relegated — or, if you prefer, a rematch of the Europa League final this past May. Both of these teams endured horrid campaigns in the Premier League last year, but it’s a different story this time around as they both seek out a return to the Top Six.
United manager Ruben Amorim is farther down the table than his counterpart, Thomas Frank, but he doesn’t have the same issues with public insubordination. Spurs supporters were booing their team at the final whistle last week, and they’re back at home here for a big one.
WEST HAM vs BURNLEY
Sat @ 10am ET, 3pm UK
Relegation scrap! Burnley slipped down to 17th with a home defeat to Arsenal last time out, but they’re still three clear of their hosts here. The Hammers secured a first victory under new head coach Nuno Espirito Santo last weekend, and over Newcastle United no less. They’ll be confident the fresh gaffer will turn things around after his fine showing last season with Nottingham Forest, but defeat here would send them spinning away from safety.
As an alternative, two more Premier League stalwarts stuck near the bottom of the table are kicking off at the same time. It’s EVERTON vs FULHAM.
JUVENTUS vs TORINO
12pm ET, 5pm UK
This isn’t the most competitive local derby, but it’s a derby nonetheless. The visiting Bulls have not triumphed in this encounter since 2015, but trends are there to be upended and Juventus have endured an uneven start to this season. They need points to keep up in touch with the early high-flyers down in Serie A: Napoli, Inter, Milan, Roma, and Bologna.
As an alternative, SUNDERLAND vs ARSENAL kicks off half an hour later in what should be an intriguing test for the league leaders. They’ll want to get their three points in the bag to pile the pressure on Man City and Liverpool, but Sunderland have made a fine start to this season and the Stadium of Light isn’t an easy place to go. This is fourth hosting first in the Premier League.
CRYSTAL PALACE vs BRIGHTON
Sun @ 9am ET, 2pm UK
This is still one of my favorite matches I’ve been to, a more-than-feisty encounter at Selhurst Park where the flares were flying and the mounted police were on high alert. It’s the A23 derby, always a treat, though there’s also BOLOGNA vs NAPOLI in the same match window — fifth hosting first in Italy.
MAN CITY vs LIVERPOOL
Sun @ 11:30 am ET, 4:30pm UK
The big one for the weekend. Enough said above!
At times, it felt as an Arsenal fan like no matter how many points the Gunners took, City would get a point or two more.
It helps to have Erling Haaland. 13 goals in 10 league matches this season.
The way things are going, it will take a howitzer from distance to get at David Raya in the Arsenal goal.