They are ferocious rivals and that, Danny, is why the guard of honour is a genuine gesture of admiration and real respect

MANCHESTER CITY players will tonight form a guard of honour for the team that has just replaced them as English champions.

It’s an old tradition (left) and, although painful for some players (Gary Neville once described it as “like your missus leaving you and being asked to hang the new bloke’s clothes up in your wardrobe”), it’s always seen as an inoffensive sporting gesture.

Until this week, when Danny Murphy (right) declared tonight’s guard of honour “a load of nonsense” because Kevin De Bruyne is being forced to applaud players who can’t lace his boots. Cue social media outrage and Murphy’s inevitable apology for his choice of wording.

Murphy’s main point, which he sticks with, is that it’s an insincere gesture offering only a “perception of respect.” But does that apply to these two teams? In recent years City and Liverpool fans have grown to dislike each other as they became rivals at the top of the English game, but the respect between managers and players has rarely been higher.

Before lockdown, City full-back Kyle Walker said of Jurgen Klopp’s side: “We have to take our hats off to them. They have been fantastic and credit where it is due.” And during it, Ilkay Gundogan said that, if football failed to resume, Liverpool should be given the title.

Last week an effusive Klopp said he “couldn’t respect City more” and, after the title was lost, Pep Guardiola, who had previously described Klopp’s side as the toughest he’d faced as a manager, warmly congratulated them, praising their “incredible focus.”

Unlike the toxic rivalries between Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger, or Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez, which spread to their players, Guardiola and Klopp (below) are a mutual admiration society.

Both are desperate to beat the other but, when they can’t, rather than allow it to eat away at them, they turn being second-best into a motivating tool. Like Ovett v Coe or

Borg v Mcenroe, the standards set by their rival is what spurs them on to even more dazzling heights.

People have said this City side created Klopp’s ‘mentality monsters’ and there’s some truth in that. They would still probably have won the Premier League but would they have smashed as many records on the way?

Those late goals that won games this season, like the two at Aston Villa, weren’t down to luck, but a team who knew, after racking up 97 points last season, that there was no margin for error. Similarly, last season, City were driven on to 98 points because they knew that if they let their standards drop their crown would be taken.

It inspired Guardiola’s side to chalk up an astonishing 198 points over the two consecutive titlewinning seasons. A phenomenal consistency that Klopp knew he had to, and did, reach. Which is why, even if Liverpool lose to City tonight, they could still achieve 201 points over two seasons.

These are unprecedented numbers for English football which has never before witnessed two winning machines of this calibre in direct competition. And tonight’s game will no doubt be the fierce opening round in the psychological fight for next year’s title.

Klopp said after becoming Premier League winners that it’s just the beginning for Liverpool, while Guardiola warned his squad must swallow the bitter experience of losing it and “learn what we need to do to avoid this situation again.”

Which means we could be in for an even more ridiculous dual points tally next season.

And if City do reclaim their title, Klopp and his players would probably be the first to offer a guard of honour because they now know what it takes to be champions.

Unlike the majority of footballers who have never been there, they now recognise the blood, sweat and tears that need to be shed to win the toughest of football titles. And the respect that demands.

Which is maybe why Danny Murphy doesn’t quite get it.