Man City Reel In Liverpool For Another ‘Insane’ Title Battle

Liverpool and Manchester City are locked in a tense battle for the Premier League title, with both teams aiming for multiple trophy seasons in the final few months of the season.

City appeared to be on their way to winning the Premier League for the fourth time in five seasons after a 1-0 victory over Chelsea in mid-January put them 13 points clear of Liverpool at the top.

Two months later, the gap has shrunk to just one point as Liverpool has taken advantage of two games in hand and a few rare slip-ups from the champions to set up yet another exciting title race between two of the best teams in English football history.
In recent years, the record books have been consistently rewritten by Pep Guardiola’s reign in Manchester and Jurgen Klopp’s revival of Liverpool’s sleeping giant.

City and Liverpool have won the last four Premier League titles between them, and at least one of them has reached three of the last four Champions League finals.

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A historic title race was decided by a single point three years ago, when City’s 98 beat Liverpool’s 97.
Only City’s 100 points in the previous 2017/18 season and Liverpool’s 99 points in 2019/20, when they ended a 30-year wait for a league title, have ever been bettered in English football history.
Klopp said after Liverpool’s ninth consecutive league win at Arsenal on Wednesday, “I know the only chance we have is to win an incredible amount of games because our opponents do.”

“We’ve pushed each other to insane levels in the last few years.”
Guardiola, who previously managed Barcelona and Bayern Munich, describes Liverpool as “the toughest opponent I have ever faced in my 13 years as a manager.”

Treble vs. quadruple
This season, rather than setting new points records, both teams are aiming for record trophy hauls.
Liverpool has already broken City’s four-year hold on the League Cup, claiming the season’s first trophy.

On Sunday, both teams are in FA Cup quarter-final action, with City visiting Southampton and Liverpool facing Nottingham Forest.
When they meet at the Etihad on April 10, the balancing act of two legs of a Champions League quarter-final either side of a potential title decider could make the difference.

The draw for the Champions League’s later stages on Friday kept the teams apart until at least the final.
Liverpool, on the other hand, was given a kinder draw for the last eight, as they will face Benfica, while City will face Atletico Madrid.

City’s priority must be to end their quest to be crowned European champions after establishing a period of domestic dominance.
“We are currently leading the Premier League. “Right now, right now, the fate is in our hands,” Guardiola said on Friday.
“Everyone is aware of what we (must) do. It’s a fantastic challenge. We make an effort to do so.”

In the history of football, no team has ever won the Champions League, Premier League, FA Cup, and League Cup all in the same season.
Only Manchester United won the treble of the Champions League, Premier League, and FA Cup in 1998/1999.

Both teams, however, have shown that they are capable of going beyond what seemed possible in previous seasons.
There’s a good chance they’ll meet again in Paris on May 28 for the Champions League final, where a quadruple or treble is on the line.