Liverpool and Manchester City drove each other to new heights – their Premier League rivalry does not need rewriting

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Anfield, forever a hostile place for City to visit, will be still more so after the independent commission found them guilty of 114 of the charges the Premier League levelled.Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola were respected rivals at Liverpool and Manchester City (Getty)Though Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham may disagree, there is a strong case that Liverpool suffered the most from City breaching financial rules to the tune, the commission ruled, of over £900m. Klopp was alone among the Premier League’s five definitive managers in only winning it once; that might have been different but for City’s wealth.

Liverpool and Manchester City's rivalry defined a Premier League era (Getty)A common denominator, though, is that when each left, exhausted, he seemed content with what he had achieved. Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool were the only team to consistently best Manchester City under Pep Guardiola (Getty)It is why, amid the knee-jerk reactions to proclaim an entire era meaningless, the overreaction is wrong.

It was not meaningless when Klopp’s Liverpool beat Guardiola’s City; so, logically, it could not be if the Catalan’s team won.It may be worth noting that the charges only covered the years from 2009 to 2018, and just the first two seasons of Guardiola’s reign, though their feats in the last eight seasons necessitated the platform built in the previous decade. Liverpool dropped five points in their last three games of the season, City none in theirs.Manchester City’s era of success cost Liverpool significantly (Getty)Now there is the chance City could go nine points ahead of Liverpool; but there is also the chance it will be their last Anfield meeting for years, depending on potential punishments.