City vs Liverpool was meant to be a rivalry for the ages – Jurgen Klopp's men have let the side down

A year ago it was billed as 'the Premier League’s greatest ever rivalry'. Now, the annual title feud between Manchester City and Liverpool is in danger of being consigned to history.

Jürgen Klopp takes his side to the Etihad Stadium for Saturday's lunchtime kick-off needing to prove the sporting combat between Liverpool and City has not peaked and that his club has what it takes to recover its place as challengers.

If he fails, rather than England’s ‘El Clasico’ eclipsing Manchester United versus Arsenal circa Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsène Wenger, City versus Liverpool will find itself placed alongside United’s brief spat with Blackburn or Newcastle United in the mid-90s; title battles set ablaze for a couple of years only for the dominant force to fix its sights elsewhere.

Liverpool naturally believe that smart recruitment and less injury misfortune will expose this season as a temporary blip and they will renew their title scrap with City next season. But whatever the outcome this weekend – or however Liverpool respond in the transfer market this summer – Saturday afternoon will be the most humbling away trip of a desperately disappointing campaign as they play catch-up to the top four while City are preoccupied with Arsenal and an imminent Champions League tie with Bayern Munich.

Those who have seen title rivalries boom and bust can testify to how demoralising it is adjusting to a new reality having been accustomed to competing for the biggest prize.

Between 1993-95, every Blackburn versus United fixture was consequential to title ambitions. By February 1996, however, the East Lancashire side were already becoming an afterthought to Ferguson.

“The usual buzz that surrounds United-Rovers clashes was missing, and reflected in a game that was more of a bun fight than the mother of all battles,” read the Lancashire Evening Telegraph about a routine 1-0 home win at Old Trafford.

Newcastle’s players confronted a similarly sobering adjustment in the immediate aftermath of the post-Kevin Keegan ‘I would love it if we beat them’ era, and go back to the mid-70s and Derby versus Leeds United was the most toxic rivalry in English football, amplified by Derby’s ex-coach Brian Clough’s 44-day stint at Elland Road following his public spats with his revered, legendary predecessor, Don Revie. It needed Marcelo Bielsa’s ‘spygate’ episode to reignite the feud between the clubs at Championship level four decades later.

Meetings between Liverpool and Clough’s Nottingham Forest effectively determined who would win league titles and European Cups between 1978-81, Anfield and the City Ground hosting some of the most hostile atmospheres in domestic and European football in that era. Although Clough kept Forest competitive for domestic trophies throughout the 1980s, his side was never the same threat to Liverpool’s title dominance, finishing in the top three only twice over the decade.

United’s annual title battles took hold in the 90s and by the mid-2000s Liverpool and Chelsea’s epic Champions League meetings were the most flammable in England. No recent encounters between the clubs have matched the fire of Jose Mourinho taking on Rafael Benítez.

Such examples underline the different types of rivalry. Some are independent of the quality on the pitch. When Liverpool faced Manchester United last month, many identified the quirk of how little both teams have been competing for the biggest honours at the same time. Like the biggest local derbies in Merseyside, Manchester or north London, the passion around the game transcends form.

Others are rooted in history, dormant until such time both sides are direct competitors.

Liverpool and City had no comparable rivalry to speak of before 2018, the Champions League quarter-final lighting the fuse.

Both believe the hostilities were stoked ‘because the other suddenly became a threat’, and they are correct. Liverpool would have won two more Premier League titles but for City, and City’s wait for the Champions League probably would have ended five years ago but for Liverpool.

Liverpool and City have kept the flames of their rivalry fanning longer than many other title head-to-heads.

For the last five years, the fixture has been a wonder on the pitch but generally grotesque off it, the enmity between the clubs well documented and resulting in a reduced away fan allocation this weekend.

Whether it is crowd disorder, malicious accusations of xenophobia, complaints about whether transfer expenditure has been diligently investigated, or claims of ex-scouts spying on their former employees, whatever mutual respect there has been between the football operations has not been reciprocated across all departments at Anfield and The Etihad.

Recognising such, Liverpool and City have recently made efforts to improve relations, yet there is nothing more effective at detoxifying meetings between the clubs than it being inconsequential as a title duel.

A 12.30pm meeting on a sedate spring day between championship chasers and a team in sixth runs the risk of being the lowest key meeting between the clubs since Guardiola and Klopp took over their respective clubs.

City will not be vacating their territory as perennial challengers any time soon. The onus is on Liverpool to retrieve lost ground.