On Sunday, no trophy will be presented at the Etihad Stadium, but when the dust settles on this Premier League season, April 10 will likely be remembered as a watershed moment.
On paper, Manchester City's next match against Liverpool is no different than every previous 'title-deciding' match between the two top clubs that occurs near the end of the Premier League season.
Both teams still have seven games left to play, and the biggest lead that might be opened by City if they win would be just four points at full-time on Sunday.
Despite this, Sunday's match might decide the fate of three distinct tournaments and mark a vital chapter in a team's rise to legendary status in English football, at the risk of tempting fate and beckoning the most boring, uninteresting 90 minutes possible.City and Liverpool have once again effectively played in their own league, as they have done for all but one of the previous four seasons.
The Reds are a point behind City and 13 points ahead of third-placed Chelsea. Liverpool and City are the only two teams in the league to score 70 goals or more, and they also have the best defensive records in the league, conceding just 38 goals between them.
City had just one point more than Liverpool throughout that time, with 338 points accumulated in only 144 games, demonstrating the closeness of the two sides.In a 2-2 tie with Manchester City in October 2021, Liverpool's Mohamed Salah scored a goal.
Which location is the most convenient? Chelsea, which was expected to break the duo's hegemony this season, is in second place with 264 points, with Manchester United in third place with 257.
They are not only powerful in the United Kingdom. According to Nielsen Gracenote's Euro Club Index, which assesses teams throughout the continent, City and Liverpool are the best two teams in Europe.
"The distance between England's best two teams has never been as small as it is now," Gracenote wrote, referring to Liverpool's recent ranking victory against German giant Bayern Munich.However, winning the league trophy — City's fourth in five years and Liverpool's second in three — could be just one branch of a much larger, historic achievement.
The two teams will face off in an FA Cup semifinal on April 16, with the winner facing either Chelsea or Crystal Palace on May 14 at Wembley.
The pair might potentially meet two weeks later in the Champions League final at the Stade de France in Paris.
Because they are on opposite sides of the draw, Liverpool and City will not meet each other in the semifinal if they win their quarterfinal first-leg matches against Benfica and Atletico Madrid, respectively.
If City wins the league and the FA Cup, May 28 may be the day they achieve an unprecedented treble. Despite all of Pep Guardiola's accomplishments and broken records throughout his tenure in Manchester, City has yet to win the Champions League.In 2021, Manchester City won the Premier League for the second time.
After the agony of losing at the final hurdle to Chelsea in Porto last season, a win in Paris would be the pinnacle of the Spaniard's reign. It would be historic if they could complete it as part of a treble, with Manchester United being the only other English team to do it.
After winning the League Cup in February, Liverpool and coach Jürgen Klopp are still in contention for an unprecedented quadruple.
After been robbed of the chance to celebrate a first league victory in 30 years in front of their fans in 2020 because to the epidemic, beating City this year would provide an opportunity to make up for lost festivities.
Liverpool, unlike City, has won the European Cup six times, but winning a seventh, coupled with the three domestic championships, would put them in an unrivaled position as the only English team to win all four.The performance of each club's talismanic players, particularly Liverpool's Mohamed Salah and Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne, might determine the game's conclusion.
Salah and De Bruyne have had another outstanding season, with both in contention for the Premier League's Player of the Season award for the second year in a row.
Salah is on track to end the season as the league's top scorer for the third time in five seasons on Merseyside, a feat made all the more astonishing by the fact that he only has 10 assists behind teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold.Despite missing a few early games due to injury, De Bruyne has continued to be an important cog in Pep Guardiola's City machine, scoring 10 goals and assisting three.
While Salah has only scored once in his past seven games, De Bruyne has scored three goals in each of City's last three games, including the game-winning goal against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinal first-leg clash on Tuesday.
After Atletico's victory, Guardiola told reporters, "He is in the best phase of the season right now — he is smart, quick, and positive." "He has had a huge impact on our game."
De Bruyne claimed it was crucial for him as a player not to be scared to make mistakes in an interview with City's website last month.People are sometimes hesitant to make a pass because they are afraid of the reaction they may receive from others. Whatever reaction people had to a poor pass, "De Bruyne expressed his opinion.
"Attempt to reclaim the ball, repeat the action, or experiment with something new. It's not a big deal "Pass completion isn't important to me. I'm not here for that. I've come to do what I know how to do well."This season, De Bruyne has been a standout performer for City.
For prominent sports scientist Simon Brundish, however, there can be only one player of the season: the ever-present 'Egyptian King.'
"There's something going on if it's not Salah," Brundish, who is open about his Liverpool support on social media, said. "I don't believe it should even be brought up.""Despite his image as a goal-hungry striker, he creates more chances than anyone else, sprints more than anyone else, and plays the most games in England." This guy's metabolic cost is through the roof, yet he's always on hand. He's the one they look to in the dressing room."
Brundish feels Salah's recent slump in form is due to the very attribute that distinguishes him: a tired Salah is "running on fumes."
Salah hasn't scored since a brace in a 6-0 thrashing of Leeds at the end of February, and despite a win against Benfica in midweek, he cuts a disgruntled figure.
Brundish remarked, "He does experience a dip in the spring because his availability is so high, he never takes a break.""His decline still makes him the best forward in the league, but it's a dip by his standards — this isn't his peak.""His decline still makes him the best forward in the league, but it's a dip by his standards — this isn't his peak."On Tuesday, Salah failed to score in Liverpool's Champions League quarterfinal first leg against Benfica.Salah's contract position remains unclear, since he has yet to sign a new agreement at Anfield to prolong his stay beyond next season. Brundish, on the other hand, has only one for Liverpool: "Can you tell me what you're doing?"If the negotiations have come to a halt over a financial issue, the sports scientist believes it is a no-brainer to pay more for Europe's "best value" attacker.
Brundish determined that Salah cost Liverpool roughly £50,000 per goal or assist by looking at the top 200 strikers in Europe and dividing transfer fees and salary by goals, assists, and predicted goals [xG] generated.
The next most cost-effective player was Bayern Munich's Robert Lewandowski, who earned £68,000, with the other 198 players earning £100,000 or more.
"If you've received this much value from a lad, then he probably has earned it," Brundish remarked, even if he sought more than market rate.
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