Are there signs Liverpool are ready to overtake City?

KEY MAN: Liverpool's Mohamed Salah battles for the ball.

The neutrals and Premier League marketeers will certainly be forgiven for hoping that this is the case as Pep Guardiola eyes up what would be a fifth league title in six years for City.

Such a spell of dominance is hardly unprecedented; after all, Manchester United did precisely that between 1995 and 2001 and, from 1978 to 1984, it was Liverpool themselves who exerted that same stranglehold on the title race.