Chelsea and Liverpool played out one of the best games of the Premier League season on Sunday at Stamford Bridge.
After Sadio Mane's sixth-second elbow on Cesar Azpilicueta, both title-chasers exchanged chances before Mane and then Mo Salah fired Liverpool into an early two-goal lead. Chelsea hit back, though, and a quickfire double before half-time saw them level, and neither side could find a winner in the second half despite a frenetic pace.
One look on social media will have seen endless declarations of how good a game it was to watch for the neutral, but Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp - isolating at home due to Covid - won't have been as impressed. Neither will Thomas Tuchel on the sidelines.
At full time, the Sky commentator declared that Manchester City were the winners of the duel between second-placed Chelsea and third-placed Liverpool. He was right, as City end the weekend with a ten-point lead at the top.
Pep Guardiola will have been encouraged by what he saw, especially with Chelsea up next at the Etihad.
Guardiola will have seen plenty of what he already knew. That Chelsea and Liverpool are both elite sides with brilliant attacking capabilities, and the mentality to go toe to toe with the best. He will have seen fine individual performances from the likes of Salah, Mateo Kovacic, N'Golo Kante and Eduoard Mendy, underlining the quality City are up against.
But Guardiola will have seen the same defensive weaknesses that Klopp and Tuchel will have bemoaned. Neither side got a full grip on the game, and there were plenty of defensive mistakes on show. A better side than Liverpool - who admittedly had a number of absentees - would have killed the game off before half time. And a better side than Chelsea wouldn't have allowed Liverpool to establish their two-goal lead in the first place.
The message from City after their scare at Arsenal was about control. Match-winner Rodri said that when things are not going right, they must do the simple things right. Like City on New Year's Day, neither Liverpool or Chelsea can claim to have done that.
City, though, produced a one-off performance this weekend, something Rodri put down to tiredness after a busy Christmas and absentees of their own. The two chasers have shown symptoms of that lack of control before - with Chelsea on a frustrating run of two wins from seven, and Liverpool now winless in three.
Both sides also have two Carabao Cup semi-final games before the next Premier League clash, whereas City have a trip to League Two side Swindon on Friday and two free midweeks. So when they face another big game in the title race for their next Premier League outing - a home clash with Chelsea - they will be confident of striking a knockout blow to their visitors.
A win against Tuchel's side would put 13 points between the sides with 16 games left, meaning City would have to effectively drop a point per game for Chelsea to catch them. It's not impossible, as Tuchel said of City's ten-point lead, but it would leave Chelsea needing a sensational run of results to overturn things.
As City have used December to put the pressure on with their own results, now they can be confident of knocking Chelsea firmly out of the running having seen their weaknesses out in the open against Liverpool. Then, if they can keep Liverpool at arms length, too, a victory against them in April would surely end any hopes Klopp and his side had of winning the league.
Now City have done the hard work, they are effectively only two big wins against Chelsea and Liverpool from eliminating all competition for another Premier League title.
And luckily for Guardiola, both sides have made it clear exactly how they can be beaten with their chaotic meeting on Sunday.
