Seven years ago, Liverpool dealt Manchester City the first real blow in a modern rivalry that has taken the Premier League to new heights.
In his first full season on Merseyside, Jurgen Klopp’s side are still far from title contenders.
Yes, they reached the League Cup and Europa League finals a year ago, brought in Sadio Mane, Georginio Wijnaldum and Joel Matip in the transfer window and built a new main stand at Anfield.
The work is still in progress.The same goes for cities. Their £500m squad, according to Transfermarkt, have become much closer to a finished product since Klopp arrived on these German shores, despite being newly signed by Pep Guardiola at the start of the season.The two coaches played for three years in the Bundesliga, Klopp at Dortmund and Guardiola at Bayern Munich. The latter improved and went on to win back-to-back titles. Now is the time for them to conquer English football. Their first meeting is scheduled for December 31, 2016 and will take place under the lights of Anfield to end the year.
Ultimately, it can be summed up as far from a preview of the battle to come. According to our extensive database, Wijnaldum’s eighth minute header was the difference in a 1-0 home win with no shots on target between the two players.
There is video evidence to dispute that the Dutchman’s superb effort on the end of Lallana’s perfect cross would have inevitably ended up in the bottom corner of Bravo’s net without any help or redirection from the post.It also provided the first hints of Guardiola’s interest in Liverpool. After his team’s victory, the Daily Mail report of the day said: “But off the mic, the mask has slipped. Standing outside the City dressing room an hour after the final whistle, Guardiola’s mood was bright. He had an in-depth discussion with the city’s director of football, Txiki Begiristain. “He was pacing back and forth, loosening his tie. He waved his hand and clenched his fist.
He spread his arms and his eyes lit up as he tried to understand why the city was so gentle. Begiristan could only hear Guardiola’s anger welling up as he put his hands to his head.Yaya Toure, a long-time enemy of the Reds since moving to the Etihad Stadium six years ago, acknowledged his manager’s anger at half-time.
“If you lose Liverpool are a good team and if you lose like that it’s not fun at half-time,” said the Ivorian. “It was disappointing and we all felt it. Of course he was angry. This is a manager who gets angry easily. Sometimes you have to react and improve the situation. We knew Liverpool would wait if we lost the ball and they did that to score. “So he was upset about everything that happened.”These moments may have been lost among other famous moments that left the Spaniard fuming at Anfield. Michael Oliver’s ‘twice’ gesture and chant to a smiling crowd might have been the best as he waved away two separate penalties before shaking the referee’s hand at full-time in November 2019, saying “Thank you very much”.
Credit Guardiola’s efforts to lift City to the top of the English league ahead of direct rivals Liverpool in two races. Because of this, today’s match seven years ago had no bearing on the direction of the year-end Premier League Cup.
Chelsea won easily, finishing the season with 93 points under Antonio Conte, while City took 78 points and Liverpool finished 3rd and 4th in the Champions League with 76 points.
However, it was the last time a club other than the Reds or City won the English title. It was an era when the competition for the title was so dominant that it was almost discontinued every six years.
