Manchester City vs Liverpool: This box-office Premier League title race has just been blown right back open
It's almost a pity that the FA Cup is this weekend because now you just want to know what happens next. Can Liverpool respond? Will City resurrect their juggernaut?
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Your support makes all the difference.A game that had everything may yet, somehow, be the start of something bigger. Maybe more spectacular. That is the greater hope after Manchester City’s thrilling 2-1 win over Liverpool at the Etihad. That may well be the greatest effect of this brilliant game.
The gap may still be four points, but it is actually all the better poised because of that. The question now is about how Liverpool respond to that, how they deal with a gap that isn’t so small it can be frittered away without thinking, but is still big enough that it asks bigger questions of their resolve. Especially when there are so many factors complicating it.
They’re right in it now. We’re all right in it now. There’s a title race, with everything so gloriously tense that entails.
First of all, having so suddenly got themselves into such a comfortable position where there was already talk about a potential unbeaten season, Liverpool now just as suddenly find the pressure is back on them. That in itself is quite an adjustment.
They’ve very quickly gone from being defiantly delighted to be on top, to being deliriously clear on top, to now dealing with the prospect of being the leaders in a tight title race when they – and so many others – had so long presumed they would be the chasers. And there might yet be a deeper adjustment required beyond that.
They have to adjust to being a fallible team again, to having been beaten for the first time this season. That should not be dismissed as readily as it might be.
While the main reasons for Liverpool’s 20-game unbeaten run were obviously so many brilliant qualities in this squad, it cannot be denied that the psychological momentum – and connected belief that the team will always just do enough – has been a factor. It is clearly an element that helps in tight games, because it generates that crucial extra assertiveness, that assurance. It removes hesitation. It helps just get the job done.
Liverpool’s main job now is to adapt to that, to generate that rhythm again, to not dwell on things. That is the other side to it. Whereas every match previously felt like just another step to be taken on this unbeaten streak, every future fixture now takes on a completely different complexion. With City bearing down on them, and without the psychological safety net of that unbeaten run, every match is now an obstacle. Even home games against more beatable opposition can look that bit more awkward.
So, it is up to Liverpool to immediately look more like themselves. Jurgen Klopp did set the right tone in that regard after the game.
“I have so much faith in my players you can’t imagine. If someone had told me after both games after Man City we were four points clear, I would have paid money for it, it’s not possible. Football is like this.
“It is all fine for us. Not in the moment, it feels really bad, but it is only a moment. Then we have an opportunity to work on it.”
But there is now a new opportunity for City. They will now think differently, and should look different. The doubts and fragility that seemed to form in their game over those three bad defeats in five matches were banished here, but not just by the win. They started the game like they had that point to prove. That fragility was already gone, replaced by a conspicuous ferociousness.
The real danger now for Liverpool is that City right themselves, and return to the levels from before December – that they become the juggernaut again. That is what is ominous. From a spark like this, City have proved they are capable of the type of prolonged winning runs that really overhaul teams; that really win championships. That is what this win has done.
That is also almost the pity that it is FA Cup this weekend. Because, really, you want to immediately know what happens next. You want the next episode. You want to see how both respond. That’s how box office this is. That’s the best effect of this game, and on the title race.
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