Get your thinking cap on. Can you remember a more negative build-up to any United game in your life? I can’t. Try as I might, I couldn’t find anyone sensible who thought the result would be anything other than a defeat. Pressed for a further opinion, most of the lads I know offered various estimates of the size of the new bodily aperture we would be acquiring — “be it torn, punched, or drilled,” helpfully expanded a colleague.

When Manchester City lost to Wolves the other week, a colleague groaned “only the outbreak of World War Three could stop Liverpool now”.

Henderson last scored at Anfield in 2015. It was the day Liverpool got a spawny late draw against West Brom and Klopp lined the players up in front of the Kop to, ahem, ‘celebrate’.

The day Jurgen Klopp walked into his first Liverpool press conference, in 2015, he prophetically claimed he would be sitting in the same seat four years later with at least ‘a title’,

Never mind the pointless abomination that was United versus Cardiff. The final whistle has just gone at Brighton versus City, and I find myself yelping a cheer for the triumphant Blues.

Sean Cox has made his first public appearance since he was assaulted at the Champions League semi-final in April 2018.

May I be the first to wish you a happy new year, dear reader? Yes, that’s jumping the gun a tad; but being premature is very à la mode, it seems. Because Liverpool FC are the 2019 champions, or so we are told by most of the English media, so we may as well all go home.

As a 1970s Mancunian boy, I lived in fear of Manchester City winning the league title. As a 1980s teenager, that fear faded as City declined. As a 1990s man, I grew to think it would never happen in my lifetime, so comical had MCFC become.

I support United at football, France at rugby and, naturally, adopt a ‘Friend Of Ireland’ default position in all your island’s endeavours. (Yes, even over Brexit). So a day that saw France win Le Crunch, United beat the Scouse, and Ireland lift the Six Nations was always going to challenge my temperance resolution.

Liverpool have sought to ease the pain of Philippe Coutinho's departure to Barcelona by offering fans who bought shirts with his name on a £50 voucher.

Good grief - what’s that awful smell? Did the wife leave the remnants of Friday’s fish out? Is it the smell of Brexit turning rancid? No, don’t panic; it’s just the rotting corpse of Saturday’s snore-draw at Anfield.

What the papers say and what's being rumoured online.

Greetings from a sunny Paris — and thus not Turf Moor — where your correspondent is covering the French presidential election.

Let’s get the formalities out of the way first. Mouthy BBC pundit Ian Wright has sternly told us that anyone not worshipping at the altar of Wayne Rooney this past weekend is “disgraceful”.

Cue TV voiceover. Previously, on Terrace Talk: “One struggles to imagine how we can trouble City. But then one does think of Martial & Rashford’s lingering un-Van Gaal’d ability to do the unexpected. And a flame of hope still burns.”

Daniel Sturridge has committed his future to Liverpool by insisting he is determined to bring success to the club.

Liverpool’s owners have performed a U-turn on proposed ticket increases after apologising to fans for getting their plans wrong.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has reiterated his insistence he is in charge of transfers after predecessor Brendan Rodgers claimed players were forced upon him.

For over 40 summers now, I have had one constant priority question on the day the league fixtures are published: “When do we go to Anfield?”

In my previous column a fortnight ago, on the cusp of transfer deadline day, I held up a stressed Irish Examiner sports editor with a last-minute Sunday evening insertion. “I’ve heard on the grapevine that United might be in Monaco, chasing some French player: Throw in this extra line about it, just in case, would you?”

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has praised his old club for getting ahead of the game in the transfer market as a sixth summer signing edges closer in the form of Southampton’s Nathaniel Clyne.

Any British United fan who remembers 1992, and who is also a Red in politics as well as football, could have been forgiven for suffering some sudden tremors of doubt before the weekend’s matches.

This week, over the water, Britain is agog. What will the nation decide? It’s too close to call: It may even be several weeks before we get a definitive answer to the question in front of us.

When it comes to the subject of the United-Liverpool rivalry, I am often reminded of the phrase "the narcissism of small differences". What must we look like to outsiders?

Social media has been alight overnight with the news that Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is set to announce today that he is to leave his boyhood club at the end of the season.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is set to announce he is to leave his boyhood club at the end of the season.

Many moons ago, The Menu took great pleasure in regularly visiting a wonderful old period home, Lettercollum House, in Timoleague, Co Cork, enjoying splendid meals based around organic produce grown on site afore heading upstairs for blissful repose in the collectively-run guesthouse. 

There’s patient and there’s asleep at the wheel

Check out the 18 brilliant young women making Irish soccer history with a UEFA Women's Under-19

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher believes it was the right time for the club to sell controversial striker Luis Suarez.

Liverpool have completed the signing of Bayer Leverkusen midfielder Emre Can after a deal to bring the Germany Under-21 international was agreed last month.

Earlier this week, the Liam Whelan bridge was defaced. Today, the bridge is covered in soccer jerseys in a touching tribute to the deceased athlete.

Following yesterday's vandalism of the Liam Whelan bridge, local football fans made clear how they felt.

Civic-minded football fans have undone the work of vandals at a bridge dedicated to an Irish footballer killed in the 1958 Munich air disaster.

Fans and officials of Bohemians took swift action today to clean and cover-up graffiti painted on the Liam Whelan memorial bridge near Cabra in Dublin.

Utd's horrorshow rolls on, it's all about the result for Gunners and Blues seeing red over ref Foy.

Liverpool made a near-£50m loss in their last financial year but managing director Ian Ayre insists the club are heading in the right direction with reduced debts and record turnover.

Of all the cities in England, there’s a connection between Liverpool and Ireland that stretches far beyond the players who have represented Everton and Liverpool.

Fans’ group Spirit of Shankly has written to Arsenal and Liverpool requesting more consideration is given to away supporters attending next month’s FA Cup fifth-round tie at the Emirates Stadium.

When John Henry strolled along the Florida boulevards with Martinez, then eventually settled for Rodgers, clearly someone had whispered in his ear about the sort of football Liverpool ought to be playing.