Pep Guardiola may or may not be in the home straight but it takes him to the place that feels his final frontier. The Manchester City manager has a standard answer – “I have one more year [on my] contract” – about his future but there is the chance that this is his last trip to Anfield. It can seem to loom large in his thinking: there may be no away ground Guardiola references by name more.
There is a reason for that. Guardiola has been going there for almost a decade with City. He has only won once: in lockdown, in an empty ground, when perhaps Anfield was not really Anfield. When he was last there, Guardiola raised six fingers to the Liverpool supporters, one to denote each Premier League title he has won. The more famous meme is of Guardiola brandishing two and yelling “twice” in any direction. It was a reference to City’s penalty appeals rejected in that 2019 defeat. Anfield, it seemed, could leave him howling into the sky in frustration.
