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It’s the Community Shield. It’s essentially a preseason friendly. A losing side can happily write off the defeat. The winning side can find itself under pressure within a couple of weeks of the league season. It doesn’t matter. And yet no game between Manchester City and Liverpool is entirely without meaning. The battle between Pep Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp, the Premier League’s two leading coaches, can never be entirely trivial.
Liverpool’s 3–1 win on Saturday meant Klopp has now won 11 of his 25 meetings with Guardiola, with five draws, making him by far the most successful coach against the Catalan. City failed to beat Liverpool in three meetings last season; it’s not conclusive evidence by any means, but for those looking for it, there is perhaps just the start of a sense of a pendulum swimming the way of Liverpool.
