The Premier League title race neither side - especially their managers - deserve to lose
The race for the biggest prize in domestic football has come down to a battle between two of modern football's most feted coaches.
Saturday 11 May 2019 21:00, UK
They are two of the best football managers in the world and on Sunday one of them will finish empty-handed after what pundits are calling the best quality Premier League title race ever. 聽
At the centre of the compelling final day drama is Manchester City's Pep Guardiola, whose team leads Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool by a single point.
Whatever happens when Guardiola's City visit Brighton and Klopp's Liverpool entertain Wolves, the pair seem set to battle it out for many future titles, certainly at home, possibly in Europe, too.
Their teams have been so good they are both more than 20 points ahead of third-placed Chelsea.
With Manchester City on 95 points and Liverpool on 94 going into the final game, the Reds' potential 97-point tally would have been enough to win the title in every other season except last year's, when City collected an eye-popping 100.
The Manchester City team Guardiola has built is at the pinnacle of English football and is poised to become the first team in a decade to retain the Premier League.
Former striker Paul Dickov first played for the club in 1996, when things looked very different.
"Twenty years ago this month we'd sunk to the lowest depths in the club's history down in what was Division Two [League One] at that time. To see the club where it is now is just amazing.
"It helps having good players, but also Pep Guardiola's got to be there, you know. Whether he's bought the players or inherited them, he's improved every single player."
It's a similar story less than 40 miles down the road at Anfield. Almost anyone you speak to credits Liverpool's success to their much-loved manager.
"It's Jurgen Klopp and it's heart," explains Chris Pajak of Redmen TV.
"This Liverpool side does not know when to give up. Bill Shankly used to talk about the holy trinity. It was the manager, the players and the fans. And it feels for the first time in a decade, maybe more, that's what we've got right now. We've got our holy trinity back."
Liverpool go into the game on the back of that sensational Champions League comeback against Barcelona.
It's hard to believe they're now vying for the Premier League title against Man City who had a 25-point lead on the Reds last season.
But despite having double glory within their grasp, even after an incredible season in which they have lost just a single game (to City in January, when they were 11 millimetres away from taking the lead), Liverpool could still come home with nothing.
"Football fans will tell you that trophies mean everything. I'm sorry, they don't. They don't mean absolutely everything in football," Pajak said.
"I've got stories from this season... if you live for the silverware at the end of the season you can't enjoy the ride."
On Sunday it's Man City's title to lose. Liverpool must beat Wolves and hope Brighton at least draw with City to take their first title in the Premier League era.
Both matches kick off at 3pm and Liverpool fans will have one eye on the pitch and the other on their phones for City's result.
But even if their team don't make it, what a ride it's been.
Along with Man City, the 18-times champions are credited with driving a new standard for the Premier League.
Kevin Parker, general secretary of Manchester City Supporters' Club, said: "You wake up on match day and you know you're going to be entertained.
"Both managers have got something very special about them that has aligned them to their own club.
"At the end of the season, no matter what happens, whether we are first or second or they are first or second, I think the football world, the Premier League clubs, have to look back at both of these clubs and say 'incredible'.
"How these two clubs can get that many points and still not win the league - it's unheard of."
Come Sunday both teams will give everything to win.
But, it seems, both sides largely agree, neither deserve to come second.