The different paths Manchester City and Liverpool have walked to form the Premier League’s new big rivalry

The greatest modern manager, the greatest players, the greatest budget and, perhaps, the greatest accountants - the size of Liverpool’s true challenge arrived on Thursday night

Stadium tours were still being conducted at the Etihad two and a half hours before kick-off last night. As the press room filled up, children posed at the top table in front of the Manchester City badge where the managers usually sit and guardians took photographs that featured some big smiles.

Over the road at the training campus, groups of fifteen or more were waiting to have their entry stamped for visiting purposes at 5pm. The office lights at the facility were switched on at midnight, with workers no longer in their suit jackets but still at their desks and beavering away at some important scheme presumably. Liverpool’s players were approaching Melwood by then, this in spite of a junction closure on entry at the M57.

The relentlessness of City. On the pitch and off it: little reminders of the scale of the challenge facing Liverpool or anyone else who fancies their chances of beating the club with the greatest modern manager, the greatest players, the greatest budget and, perhaps, the greatest accountants. We will see...

The intriguing thing about this title race is the new rivalry emerging between City and Liverpool and this partly relates to the contrasting paths each club has taken to reach where they are now.

City’s team took two years to click into gear following Sheikh Mansour’s purchase and within the same timeframe, Liverpool slid away from being a club that was on the brink of its second Champions League final in three seasons when it was bought by Tom Hicks and George Gillett in 2007, to one positioned in the Premier League's relegation zone and just a point above bottom place when it was sold on again in 2010 like some sort of a valuable heirloom at a secret auction to a mystery buyer.

While City have grown into a brand that is not just reflective of the deals sanctioned in Manchester but New York, Melbourne as well as other major cities in nearly all of the continents under the banner of the City Football Group, it has taken nine years for Fenway Sports Group to manoeuver Liverpool into the same area of sporting relevance at least, and convince they really belong there.

Fascinatingly, while City stand accused of breaching Financial Fair Play Rules having broken them before – while all along complaining bitterly about why they exist in the first place – Liverpool believed in them, complied with them, and look where they are now.

This is not an attempt to present Liverpool as the underdog in the race to come, not least because of the history and the weight of expectation that exists there, which paradoxically makes their task more difficult according to a host of social commentators.

The only thing that really counts here is managerial appointments and the investments made in the squads over the last three to five years at least: the success with which sporting directors have scouted, and whom they have sold and for what money. This is where Liverpool have made the greatest strides.

City and Liverpool have taken very different paths to reach the top of the English game (AFP/Getty) (AFP)

Had they forced an equaliser as last night's game grew old rather than have attempts cleared off the line three times as they did, one moment would have been reflected upon as the surest sign of change as well as the surest sign that Liverpool's investment in proven top-quality international stars is now impacting on the outcome when City are the opponents.

This related to the City attack when Sergio Aguero latched onto a Bernardo Silva pass before rounding Alisson, where he would surely have made it 3-1. He has scored these types of goals against Liverpool before, two of them coming when Simon Mignolet was the goalkeeper trying to stop him. Alisson, though, had the sharpness to funnel back and somehow claw Aguero’s effort away from danger.

Alisson made a brilliant save to deny Sergio Aguero late on (PA)

Ultimately, it did not prove to be one of the small details that mattered. But what if Leroy Sane’s winner hits the post and comes back out? What if Sadio Mane’s first half shot clatters the other post at the same end and instead gives Liverpool the lead? There is not much to separate these teams now, in spite of the gulf that exists between the resources of the owners that run them. Should Liverpool prevail, those that run FFP might even see it as a triumph of their own.