Klopp, Guardiola, Arteta: Premier League’s equivalent of the Big 3

Just like that, with a handshake and a hug, ended the rivalry that defined the English Premier League post the heady years of Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger. Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola, who between them have won everything football could offer, who embellished the league with their tactics as well as personas, would no longer duel on the English shore.

Their last encounter, a 1-1 draw, might not be remembered as a classic. They have produced games of higher standards and heightened levels of drama. But the match possessed all the ingredients that made clashes between Liverpool and Manchester City a spectacle over the years – the energy and edginess, the madness and imperfections, the genius and chaos, the fire and ice. The match, like most of their games, leaves the watcher discontent that it ended all too soon, despite the clock stopping at 100 minutes, despite the players expending the last drop of sweat and energy. Theirs is not a traditional or bitter rivalry, but rather an accidental one. City and Liverpool just happened to be the best teams of their era, fuelled to success by two generational managers. It would never be the same again.

Their meetings were not always about titles or points — thought it always had a bearing on the title race; City is third, a point behind Arsenal on the table, while Liverpool is second on goal difference with the Gunners — but about the coming together of two great managers, from two different schools, from two countries proud of their heritage in shaping revolutionary football tactics. The Emperor of pass versus the Czar of press, even though the lines between them have blurred, even though the methods are not antithetical. Essentially, every contest is a tussle for points, but