When Liverpool faced Chelsea earlier on this season, it was referee Anthony Taylor who took centre stage.
Both sets of supporters walked away from the 1-1 draw at Anfield questioning the performance of the man in the middle, particularly those situated in the away section of the ground.
Frustrated by Taylor’s decision to send off Reece James for a goal-line handball, a number of Chelsea fans argued that this was not a deliberate action.
When the sides meet again this afternoon, it will again be Taylor taking charge of the contest.
The Reds have been no stranger to contentious decisions in matches with the Londoners over the years, however.
During a similar stage of the season in the 2013/14 campaign, Liverpool suffered a 2-1 defeat at Stamford Bridge thanks to goals from Eden Hazard and Samuel Eto’o for the hosts.
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Coached by Brendan Rodgers at the time, Martin Skrtel captured the lead in the game after an effective set-piece delivery into the Chelsea box.
This free-kick was initially awarded following a rash challenge by Eto’o on Jordan Henderson in midfield, but the Cameroonian striker avoided what looked to be a potential red card from Howard Webb for his late lunge.
Controversy continued as Eto’o later found himself on the scoresheet, while Rodgers’ side also saw two strong penalty appeals on Luis Suarez ignored – one of which again involved the Chelsea forward.
Speaking after the match, Jose Mourinho played down talk that his side were fortunate not to be punished for the aforementioned incidents.
"My experience in football helps me to see things with another perspective,” said the former Chelsea coach.
“When I was Brendan's age, I was also only looking to one side. The penalty of the game was Lucas on Hazard. That's the real penalty. The situation with Eto'o and Luis Suarez, that's a yellow card.
"If somebody has to complain, it's us. I understand what Brendan is doing, especially because in the last match against City he has big reasons to speak about. He has big reasons to speak about, but not today."
Liverpool did indeed have ‘big reasons to speak’, having been on the receiving end of a poor call in another game of fine margins away to a title rival three days earlier.
Just as they did against Chelsea, Liverpool took a first-half lead on their travels but conceded twice to surrender three points.
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Shortly before scoring the game’s opening goal, Raheem Sterling had the ball in the back of the Sky Blues’ net – only to be flagged offside as he rounded Joe Hart and converted his chance.
The replays showed that the England international was comfortably onside, leaving Rodgers furious at the full-time whistle.
"We had nothing that went our way at all,” he argued. “I never go on about officials but I thought they were horrendous.
"The linesman gave Raheem offside in the first half but they were not even on the same cut of grass. If you are working at this level you have got to get those right.
"There was another incident in the second half when Luis [Suarez] should have had a free-kick on the edge of the box and arguably there was a penalty late on.
"I was surprised that we are playing in Manchester and we had a referee from Greater Manchester," he added.
"Hopefully we won't have a Greater Manchester referee with Liverpool-Manchester games in future."
Despite losing two critical matches against teams also gunning for Premier League glory, Liverpool managed to drag themselves back into title contention by winning 14 of their following 16 matches after being beaten by Chelsea.
Such a run may not even be enough on this occasion to halt Pep Guardiola's City side, who secured an 11 th straight league win on Saturday afternoon against Arsenal in controversial circumstances.
The Gunners were denied a spot-kick for what looked to be a foul by Ederson on Martin Odegaard inside the area and were later penalised as Granit Xhaka brought down Bernardo Silva.
Strong cases could be made in both instances, but only one penalty was awarded.
Comparisons have been drawn to the situation when Liverpool recently played Spurs - with VAR intervening in an incident which saw Andy Robertson sent off for kicking out, while Harry Kane escaped a similar fate despite a dangerous challenge.
Jurgen Klopp certainly had 'big reasons to speak' after that encounter.
It's safe to say that video technology has done little to erase clear and obvious errors that can be made at times under pressure, with its only consistency to date being its inconsistency.
There are no guarantees that VAR and the match officials will not create confusion in yet another Premier League fixture, but this is an issue that remains out of Liverpool's control once more.
The Reds will be hoping there is no repeat of previous controversies this afternoon in what may be a defining match in the title race.
