Since August 2018, Liverpool and Manchester City have picked up at least 58 more points than any other team in the Premier League.
Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have competed in a league of their own by establishing unique brands of offensive, proactive and modern football at Anfield and the Etihad.
High-profile clashes between the pair have had it all and that continued to be the case on Sunday as the Reds hosted this season's first bout, with Klopp's ability to recognise tactical flaws before resolving them assuming the spotlight.
Klopp adopted much of his tried and tested approach to prevent City from playing with their usual degree of fluidity. He selected 4-3-3 as his formation of choice, and his team attempted to force the Manchester outfit to build out wide using the flanks rather than the middle by blocking central passing lanes to the likes of Kevin De Bruyne.
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The German has employed such a game plan without the ball on a number of occasions against Guardiola's men, referencing the corridor between the centre of the field and the flanks as decisive when defending.
On the attacking side of the game, Liverpool seemed to showcase a clear desire to exploit Ruben Dias using diagonal runs from Sadio Mane, who regularly looked to escape the right-sided presence of Kyle Walker.
Dias, unlike Walker, does not possess the required pace to keep up with Mane, hence the attacking intent behind the persistent central movements made by the Senegalese forward.
For 45 minutes, Liverpool struggled. The game plan was proven, but the execution was disastrous.
The Reds allowed City to access the valuable spaces of the pitch with ease, as shown below. "What does City want to do? They want to play through the centre," Klopp said upon reflection of the first half. "I'm not sure I saw a lot of games where City could pass the ball that easy through the half spaces, between our winger and no.8."
The Manchester outfit failed to capitalise upon their dominance by finding the back of the net, but Liverpool had defensive problems to resolve.
Moreover, the offensive ploy surrounding Mane had failed to bear fruit. The 29 year-old had cut across Dias on a number of occasions, but passes aimed in his direction originated from deeper areas and Guardiola's defenders anticipated their arrival.
"We had long balls which made absolutely no sense," Klopp said in his post-match analysis. "One or two of them maybe made sense but all the rest, I didn't see the reason for it. The message for the football was to play the extra pass."
Liverpool had just one shot on goal in the first half, which was their fewest in the first 45 minutes of a Premier League home game since January 2017, but Klopp knew what he had to change.
"Our last line was too passive and it called the midfield line back," said the 54 year-old, "so neither Hendo nor Curtis could step out when needed. They passed the ball through us."
On the back of Klopp's message at the interval, Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip climbed a few yards higher up the field which added compactness in midfield and consequently allowed the team to compete for second balls and individual duels.
Mane's penetrative runs continued and on the 59th minute, he scored the opener after being found with a through ball by Mohamed Salah, rather than a lofted pass from deep which had previously been the case.
Salah also found the net himself through a moment of pure brilliance late in the game, and City scored twice to ensure the contest ended in a respectful draw. Phil Foden in particular caused major problems for James Milner throughout the match, who was filling in for the injured Trent Alexander-Arnold.
After seven matches, Liverpool have a one-point lead over Guardiola's side and ultimately, that probably wouldn't be the case if Klopp hadn't expertly turned things around at half time.
