They’re the top teams in the land but this cracker will not decide anything

IN early December I heard two ex-players turned TV pundits say that the title should be handed to Manchester City because no team could catch them.

To be fair, there weren’t too many fans taking them to task. The side that won last year’s title with 100 points looked to be moving to another level under Pep Guardiola (right, with Klopp) even without their best player, the injured Kevin De Bruyne.

And then football did what football does by catching out teams who let their standards drop. Three weeks, and three defeats, later those premature evaluations have dried up.

Suddenly people were noticing City’s attack wasn’t as fluid and lethal as it can be, that the defence had only kept one clean sheet in the league since October, and if you have a go at them they’re not invincible. One of the pundits who’d given them the title a month ago was now previewing tonight’s game at the Etihad, thus: “Do Liverpool go out and think that if they draw they’ve probably taken Manchester City out of the equation?

“Or do they go for the jugular and win the Premier League on Thursday night?”

Okay, it was Paul Merson, but even sane voices who should know better are saying Liverpool can have the Premier League wrapped up by 10pm. They’re wrong.

English top-flight titles are never won when the Christmas decorations are still up.

Tonight’s game should be a cracker. Another gung-ho joust between the best teams in the land who have developed, since last season’s Champions League games, a proper edgy rivalry. But it won’t decide anything. Up until three weeks ago Manchester City were being widely hailed as the best Premier League side ever.

Two bad results against Crystal Palace and Leicester doesn’t necessarily alter that perception.

Think back to 1981/2, when Liverpool were a trophywinning machine held in the same esteem as Guardiola’s today.

Bob Paisley’s side went into the New Year nine points off the top, after a 3-1 Boxing Day defeat at Anfield by, of all teams, Manchester City.

Then got their act together, went on a run that blew away those ahead who were feeling the pressure, and won the league by four points.

Liverpudlians of a certain age will remember that, but then those of any age who hear Guardiola describe their team as currently “the best side in Europe,” know he’s playing mind games. Especially after just seeing Jurgen Klopp’s men lose three games to European opponents. Indeed, for once it’s Liverpudlians, normally accused of indulging in wildly premature celebrations, who are the most sceptical of any title talk. They don’t need statistics to tell them how transformed this team has become in one calendar year because their eyes do that. But they’re the same eyes that have watched their club fail to win a title in 29 years. And in the last five seasons have watched them blow the Premier League, Champions League, Europa League and League Cup, when they were in touching distance of lifting them. They know Klopp is building the club’s most complete squad since the Eighties but they’re also realists who know they’ve had the rub of the green all season and that is unlikely to last until May.

They go to Manchester tonight confident of returning with a points cushion that could put them in a tremendous position for the next four hard months.

But if they do get a result, the majority of fans will be singing “We’re gonna win the league” more in hope than expectation. Because recent history, plus the noises coming from their manager and players, is telling them to just enjoy the ride and not worry about the destination.

A mentality which could be the crucial factor in their quest to finally end their title famine.