Terrace Talk: Man City may not have many more opportunities to show Liverpool who’s boss

Judging by Everton punishment, City could be heading for a tear-stained rerun of the late 90s Days of Yore

Sat, 25 Nov, 2023 - 07:03

Simon Curtis - Terrace Talk

Part of Manchester City’s record against Liverpool still resembles a scene from a Fritz Lang film, inert bodies scattered on the ground before rows of leafless trees that bend over a dark and moody canal, which might or might not contain a shopping trolly once pushed moodily down the aisles of Denton Aldi by Marliene Dietrich. The soundtrack hovers, shimmers and fades, synthesized Mancunian sobbing with a vague hint of reduced-to-go sauerkraut in the background.

While that scene has changed little down the years at Anfield, barring a few tiny blobs of light in 1981, 2003 and 2021, matches in Manchester between the two sides have been taking on different hues. The days of home humiliations at the hands of Shankly/Paisley/Dalglish’s wizards (delete where applicable depending on number of years you have been fed through this particular mangle) seem to have run their blood-spattered course. Manchester City, bright and perky, are on a run of seven home games against their red foes without a single defeat. Flesh it out further and we see that Liverpool have won just one out of the last 14 on City’s turf.