The power is shifting, Liverpool and United on different levels now

AT The end of my first season at Liverpool, I had a sense of anticipation that was different to anything I’ve experienced in my career.

The standout achievement of that opening 12 months was winning the FA Cup but the league table was what made me excited for the seasons to come. We had come third with 82 points, one place and one point behind Manchester United.

Liverpool had only finished ahead of United once in the previous 14 years but, as 2005-06 drew to a close with an 11-game winning sequence, it felt as if we had put a hand on their shoulders. Rafa Benitez had assembled an excellent squad and I believed that, come the end of 2007, we would be champions.

Pulling alongside United, however, was a world away from overtaking them. In the next campaign, they beat us at Old Trafford and Anfield.

Just thinking about the defeat at home, when John O’Shea scored in the last minute after we had battered them, makes me squirm to this day.

It would be United who took the title off Chelsea. We finished third again but this time Sir Alex Ferguson, with his forward line of Cristiano Ronaldo (above) and Wayne Rooney, had seen his side turn a one-point difference into a 21-point chasm.

That, pretty much, is the story of how things have been in the Premier League for these two clubs. Liverpool, in 25 years, have only finished in a better position than United on three occasions, and never managed the feat in consecutive seasons.

This gives you an idea of how United have dominated. They are the biggest club in the country for a reason and it was down to Ferguson being able to add the highest quality to an established group of winners that they kept being able to go again.

What I have seen over the last six months, though, makes me think the power is shifting in this particular battle.

At the start of 2018, after Stoke had played United, I thought United would establish themselves as the main threat to Manchester City. But Liverpool’s form through the calendar year has been relentless and they look to be hitting a peak in time for the Premier League’s biggest fixture; no other game — and no other rivalry — matches this one in england and I say that with the benefit of experience. That first season I was a Liverpool player, we faced United three times. At Old Trafford, Rio Ferdinand scored a last-minute winner and I remember watching Gary Neville charge towards our supporters to give them stick. everything about that day was horrible.

Back at Anfield in the FA Cup was like nothing I had ever known. You hear people talk about games having an edge but this was different. It was nasty, genuine hatred from all sides of the ground. It’s not just about two clubs, it’s about two cities

that are so different but are also so similar.

I scored that day and people still talk to me about it now when I go to Liverpool. It was a scruffy goal, a header that sneaked past Edwin van der Sar, but the eruption that greeted it was extraordinary.

Whoever scores for Liverpool tomorrow — and they haven’t managed to get a goal against united at Anfield in the last three Premier League meetings — will find the noise comparable; it is a clash that makes heroes and there is so much at stake.

united’s start to the season has amazed me. Jose Mourinho is a top manager but his team’s lack of consistency will be driving him crazy and I’m not sure his best plans will be able to stop Liverpool.

Liverpool look the real deal under Jurgen Klopp. they have backed up reaching the Champions League final with one of the best starts to a season in history and, in a normal year, they would now be odds-on favourites to win the title.

City, of course, will have something to say about that, but it’s fair to say that Liverpool are at a different level to united at the moment in terms of how they have shaped their squad and the potential they have.

History has shown that Liverpool have not been able to capitalise on positions of authority over united before — the year after finishing runners- up in 2014, Liverpool slumped to sixth, with united finishing fourth — but things feel different.

the impetus is with Liverpool now in this rivalry. It is up to them to make it count.