When Kevin De Bruyne crowned an imperious performance with the winning goal in Manchester City’s 1-0 January victory over Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium, Pep Guardiola’s team went 13 points clear of the Blues at the Premier League summit.
Liverpool were 14 points behind the reigning champions — albeit with two games in hand — and a procession to City’s fourth title in five seasons was widely anticipated.
Guardiola himself was less sure and a month later, after a draw at Southampton and a chaotic home defeat to Tottenham, he described a Liverpool team closing in on his own as “a pain in the ass, all the time”.
“I think Pep said we are the pain in the...lower back,” was Jurgen Klopp’s chuckling response.
"That is a good description and that is how it should be. We try to be as annoying as possible until we have a chance to overtake.”
That chance might yet come on the final day of the season, where Liverpool will be crowned champions if they beat Wolves at Anfield and City fail to do likewise against Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa at the Etihad Stadium.
This is not a story of City choking or even faltering to any great extent. Guardiola’s men have lost one Premier League match since October. It is the story of Liverpool doggedly refusing to go away, while picking up a couple of trophies and moving to within touching distance of a historic quadruple season.
Winning when Salah and Mane went to the AFCON
One of the reasons City’s advantage looked so imposing was the fact they opened it up when Liverpool were without their two superstar forwards. Not only did Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane head to Cameroon for the Africa Cup of Nations, they steered their Egpyt and Senegal sides all the way to the final, where Mane netted decisively in the penalty shoot-out.
A domestic schedule fractured by coronavirus postponements meant Liverpool only played two games without them but won them both — 3-0 at home to a Brentford side, who they drew 3-3 against earlier in the season, and 3-1 away to a Crystal Palace side who took four points off City.
Mane was also absent when Liverpool avenged their December defeat to Leicester with a 2-0 Anfield triumph and Salah trotted out for half an hour as a substitute. Those were the first three of a 10-match winning streak that reduced City’s advantage at the top to a solitary point.
Luis Diaz signs in January
Diogo Jota got both Liverpool goals in that Leicester win and he is part of the reason Klopp is no longer so reliant on Mane and Salah, the Portugal forward having weighed in with 21 goals in all competitions this term.
Alongside Jota and previously first-choice Roberto Firmino in the forward line that day was Luis Diaz, making his full Liverpool debut. The £37.5million signing from Porto has been a revelation, proving an exception to the general trend of January signings never truly making an impact until the following season.
Diaz has produced six goals and four assists in 23 appearances, 15 of which have been starts. However, his impact is as much about the verve he has injected into pretty much every game he has been a part of.
His livewire displays in the Carabao and FA Cup finals, although scoreless, were standout performances. The Colombia international gave Liverpool a new dimension and therefore helped to propel their irresistible momentum.
Champions League, Carabao and FA Cup success
“Yes, of course it gives momentum but momentum is the most fragile flower on the planet,” Klopp said after Firmino and Jota’s goals saw off Arsenal in Liverpool’s remaining game in hand to trim City’s lead to a point in mid-March.
“Somebody just walks past you and steps on it and done. Then you work again for I don’t know how long to get momentum back.”
To extend Klopp’s metaphor, Liverpool have since proved themselves to be expert horticulturists. Although not directly related to Premier League points, their rumbling success in cup competitions have preserved an incredible sense of purpose and, certainly for some in the fanbase, a feeling of destiny.
Liverpool went to penalties to beat Chelsea in both the domestic cup finals, while a relatively easier Champions League quarter-final against Benfica allowed them to rest players and go close to full-strength against a heavily rotated City in the FA Cup semi-final. Klopp’s men were deserved 3-2 winners and kept the bid for a clean sweep on the road.
MORE: Diaz dazzles for triumphant Liverpool as Lukaku labours — How the FA Cup final was won and lost
Drawing with City at the Etihad Stadium
The FA Cup semi-final was the clubs’ second meeting in six days. On April 10, they played out a pulsating 2-2 draw in Manchester.
City began at a ferocious place, essentially beating Liverpool at their own game early on as De Bruyne's deflected strike opened the scoring. Diogo Jota hauled the Reds level but Gabriel Jesus made it 2-1 to Guardiola’s side at the break.
Mane dispatched a fine equaliser in the first minute of a more even second-half but City finished the stronger, with Jesus and then Riyad Mahrez in stoppage time passing up glorious chances to seal the points.
“I had the feeling that with this result we missed an opportunity,” Guardiola said afterwards. “A feeling we leave them alive.”
Comeback wins at Aston Villa and Southampton
The theme of leaving Liverpool alive reared its head again last weekend, when City fought back from 2-0 down to level up their match at West Ham at two apiece. Jesus won a late penalty but Mahrez, having scored each of his previous seven from the spot, saw his attempt saved by Lukasz Fabianski. If the Algeria winger had scored, we’d probably be looking at a formality on the final day, if it had even got that far.
In the midweeks either side of the FA Cup final, Klopp fielded rotated line-ups as his team’s endeavours on all fronts finally appeared to be taking a toll —most notably in the 1-1 draw at home to Tottenham that could still prove so crucial in the final analysis.
At Aston Villa and Southampton they went behind to early goals from Douglas Luiz and Nathan Redmond respectively. Each time, Liverpool came back to win 2-1 to take it to the wire, demanding City work all the way to the last.
A pain in the ass, all the time.
