This was supposed to become a rematch for the ages, like the Thrilla in Manilla only a good deal longer and a whole lot less bloody.
Manchester City and Liverpool FC fought last season for the championship of each other, as the late, great Mark Kram might have written it were he still around and inclined to spend his journalistic talents covering soccer. That the winner would be Premier League champion was every bit the reason they battled so furiously, but at times their duel seemed the only competition that mattered.
The greatest championship race in Premier League history ended with City’s Vincent Kompany holding the trophy aloft. As chronicled in the first episode of “Countdown” on DAZN, which is titled “Two-Horse Race,” we entered the 2019-20 season with every reason to believe these two would reprise that “epic battle,” as EPL great Alan Shearer called it.
Liverpool and Manchester City became a rivalry of sorts when LFC hired Jurgen Klopp in 2015 and City brought Pep Guardiola to the Etihad Stadium a year later. With the two most coveted managers in world football on their benches, each was able to build teams worthy of their tactical brilliance.
To construct another thrilling title chase, City would need to maintain the dominance evident over the past two seasons and LFC would have to find the motivation to again try climbing that mountain after getting so close to the top and, in the end, falling back to the base.
Commentator Peter Drury wondered if Liverpool could recover the “human resource” to chase down Manchester City after recording the third-highest point total in Premier League history and still falling short of the title. Liverpool has not won a league championship since the EPL was established in the 1992-93 season, and last season was beaten out 98 points to 97.
As Liverpool went through 27 games of this season with only a single draw preventing a perfect points total and a lead of 25 points over City prior to the COVID-19 shutdown, though, it became obvious last year’s disappointment was fueling this year’s phenomenon.
“Liverpool, it seems, have always done their business, always put pressure on Man City to go out and perform,” Shearer tells Countdown. “And we know that is very difficult.”
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