Liverpool, Manchester City and a clash that will reveal the Premier League’s new reality

Below is a summary of the full article. Click here for the full version from Independent or go back to LFC Live.

As Manchester City finally got all of their players back together again, after mostly being abroad for a crisis that threatens to tear the club apart, manager Enzo Maresca of course had to go through all the usual processes.The group did address the difficulty of their circumstances, amid the anticipation that Anfield on Sunday is going to be unlike any atmosphere ever seen.“The noise”, as Maresca put it.Enzo Maresca and Manchester City face a hostile atmosphere at Anfield on Sunday (Reuters)And yet the great question about this game, and also this season, is how much all of this can actually be shut out.It was almost humorously incongruous to hear Maresca talk about bringing “our game plan” as if this was a normal game.This is not really a build-up to be discussing whether Jeremy Jacquet will be fit enough to handle Erling Haaland, or previous meetings between Maresca and Andoni Iraola.It may well be the most significant Premier League fixture in history, and it sums up an entire era that isn’t really because of the football. There’s even the wonder over whether the result will actually matter, amid the prospect of a huge points deduction for City or potentially expulsion.This is the most seismic of Super Sundays and yet the pursuit of the Premier League title, that this match may influence, barely feels secondary.This is almost the competition’s event horizon, a consequence of so many complicated strands over years coming together and then spilling everywhere.For all the talk of this damaging the Premier League’s brand, however, interest has never been more intense.

Figures in European football - including at this week’s Leaders in Sport event at Stamford Bridge and Uefa’s Ordinary Congress - were talking about how this is one game where they’d just love to be at. Even some connected to Manchester United, and not those who used to work at City, have spoken privately about how they want Liverpool to win.Anfield is going to be a literal soundcheck for all of the emotions in football about the City case, and set a tone.It is remarkable how often the fixture list has this extraordinary capacity to throw up matches that most fit the prevailing storyline.

There will be reminders of Jurgen Klopp’s rivalry with City, from which Liverpool ultimately feel a truly brilliant team was robbed of greater glories. Players have concerns over their own futures.And that can be fatal for a team.This is also in a world where modern coaches, like Guardiola and Maresca, abruptly remove players who they think don’t fully believe due to the need to constantly have a tunnel vision; to have no doubt.And now it’s a team filled with doubt.So while a siege response can sustain them for a while, this looks especially susceptible to adversity.It isn’t impossible to see a situation in this Liverpool game - or any, really, in the near future - where they started well and with full blood only for a setback to bring collapse.Many at other clubs are even curious to see how committed they’ll be.It is a game unlike any other, that will set a new reality for the Premier League.