When you think of the Premier League’s greatest ever rivalries, you tend to think of bad blood, on-pitch scraps, and wars of words. The most obvious example is Arsenal and Manchester United in the late 1990s and early 2000s. These were two teams competing at the top year after year, and they made no effort to contain the fact that they despised each other.
When you look at Manchester City and Liverpool in 2022, though, the landscape is much different. There is no bitter feud between players, coaches and supporters, matches do not descend into full-blown brawls, and the two managers could not be more complimentary of each other. Instead, this is a rivalry defined by sheer footballing excellence — each team inspiring the other to reach greater levels of performance.
Each of the last four Premier League titles have been won by either Manchester City or Liverpool, and with the two teams currently neck-and-neck in the 2021-22 Premier League title odds, this year’s title is set to go their way once again. The two sides really have been head and shoulders above their contemporaries over the last five years or so, and we are fortunate to be witnessing two of the greatest teams in Premier League history playing each week.
But how will be look back at this rivalry in a couple of decades’ time? Yes, there have been some cracking matches between the two teams in recent times — cagey close-run affairs, brutal hammerings one way or the other, and high-scoring thrillers where you never know what’s coming next — but compared to some of the great footballing rivalries of the past, there has been a lack of needle.
To again use Manchester United and Arsenal’s rivalry as an example, there were so many incidents that have gone down in history. Be it Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira’s tunnel bust-up, Martin Keown’s celebration in the face of a dejected Ruud van Nistelrooy, or the infamous ‘pizzagate’ where it was alleged that an Arsenal player threw a slice of pizza at Sir Alex Ferguson, these clashes had a real sense of bitterness that went beyond the action on the pitch.
Liverpool and Manchester City’s rivalry has become something much more modern and sophisticated. It is a battle of two supremely talented coaches and two supremely talented squads of players — to engage in such foolish behaviour would simply be a sign of weakness.
That’s not to say there hasn’t been intense moments. Who could forget Guardiola losing his cool on the Anfield touchline over his perceived injustice at refereeing decisions, or Sadio Mané being denied a goal at the Etihad Stadium by millimetres as a result goal-line technology? The best moments in this titanic five-year tussle have come by way of the action on the pitch, and that is the biggest compliment you can pay to these two teams.
Manchester City v Liverpool is a rivalry based on the unique styles of their two coaches — the meticulous perfectionist Guardiola against the all-or-nothing heavy metal Klopp. While future generations won’t look back at these battles as the bitterest, they’ll certainly be remembered as the highest quality.
