Mark Langdon: Jurgen Klopp v Pep Guardiola is a Premier League masterpiece

Super Sunday should live up to its billing this weekend with Aston Villa versus Tottenham the perfect aperitif for the only main course worth bothering with on Mother's Day as Liverpool do battle with Manchester City in a game that will be pivotal to the outcome of the Premier League title race.

First against second with 11 games to go cannot ultimately decide the destination of the title, however should Liverpool win and kick four points clear of the champions it would be a monumental shift in the balance of power for this season. A City triumph at Anfield, meanwhile, sees them hit the summit with a sense of inevitability regarding the conclusion.

There could be positives for both if it ended all-square, but the draw also benefits Arsenal, who would be top on goal difference at the end of the weekend assuming the on-song Gunners beat Brentford as expected 24 hours earlier.

Arsenal have been rampant in recent weeks, scoring 17 goals and conceding none in winning their last three league away games. However, their final five road trips take them to City, Brighton, Wolves, Spurs and Manchester United. Those fixtures promise to be far more difficult than trips to Sheffield United and Burnley, teams who the Gunners have imperiously brushed aside in their own backyard either side of a limp 1-0 loss at Porto.

All three are in the mix, but in my opinion it could be a straight shootout between Liverpool and City. That means Jurgen Klopp against Pep Guardiola in another epic duel, with Sunday's Anfield dust-up the 30th and potentially final time they will be in opposition dugouts due to Liverpool waving goodbye to their German great at the end of the campaign.

Few managers have been as much of a pain to Pep than Klopp, who is one of the few coaches to have regularly faced Guardiola and come out on top. It's currently 12 wins to Klopp, 11 to Guardiola and six draws. Counter-attacking managers Antonio Conte (four wins from seven), Ole Gunnar Solskjaer (four wins from nine) and Nuno Espirito Santo (three wins in eight) are the others to have left Guardiola scratching his head, but the longevity of Klopp's record makes him stand out as Pep's kryptonite.

Football fans should be thankful Klopp showed there was a different way to take on Guardiola. It felt like for a long time you were watching the same film on repeat as opposition teams sat back with men behind the ball in a low, central block and look to nullify teams managed by the Spaniard, with Jose Mourinho's Inter infamously knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League 3-2 on aggregate in a true parking of the bus. In the second leg Inter lost 1-0 and made 116 passes compared to Barca's 737.

Guardiola's approach – juego de posicion or positional play – took a stranglehold until Klopp disrupted his rhythm with gegenpressing, which unsettled even the best possession-based teams much higher up the pitch. 

The German's lead was followed by Mauricio Pochettino, who has managed to avoid defeat in 11 of his 24 games against the City boss and knocked him out of the 2019 Champions League quarter-finals, repeating the trick of Klopp's Liverpool from 12 months earlier.

Klopp's way of dealing with Guardiola leads to a much better spectacle, too.

Both teams have scored in 12 of the last 14 meetings between Liverpool and City across all competitions. Those fixtures have produced 50 goals and nine went over 3.5 goals which is testament to the philosophies of two managers who rarely take a backward step, even when the stakes are at their highest.

That's not to say it's always perfect. The goalless draw between the sides at Anfield in October 2018 was a turgid affair, but if this is to be the last meeting between Klopp and Guardiola it deserves to go out with a big bang and with all the talent on show it has the potential to be a very super Sunday.

Click for free bets and betting offers from the Racing Post