Even for cruising City, Anfield is like an afternoon stroll in Death Valley without a sun hat

The managerial rivalry that will define the modern era of English football throws Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp together for the final time in Premier League combat, one last vital joust, one last coup de théatre, one last chapter of galloping cut and thrust. The arch exponent of pass-them-to-death against the hi-energy champion with — Arsenal allowing — the usual prize awaiting the winners.

Having disposed of Manchester United with minimal fuss and progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals for the seventh successive season, City now face games against Liverpool, Newcastle, Arsenal and Aston Villa, a quartet of matches that will surely provide a clear idea of what to expect from the pointy end of the season for Guardiola’s men.

City have been here before of course, calm in the knowledge that they have the big-game players with winners’ attitudes, boosted by the timely reappearance of Kevin de Bruyne and Erling Haaland and working up a royal head of steam for the most pivotal section of the season. How many times in recent years has Guardiola prepared everything for the April-May run-in, getting City into cruise control as others wilt, implode and froth themselves into over-excitement and early climax?

“We believe we can do it,” the Catalan insisted during the week, rejigging the mentality brought with him from Barcelona and Munich, where winning was a prerequisite. This was a mindset conspicuous by its absence in the halcyon days of Maine Road, this self-assured feeling of it’ll be alright on the night. Anything that could go wrong, in those days of bluff and blunder, invariably did just that. City were the polar opposite of the assured bunch of super-athletes that strut and charge today. Even in the early