They may come to be seen as contrasting ways to lose a grip upon a title. The 2024 champions’ defence of their crown was over before Christmas, destroyed because they did too little to their title-winning team. Their 2025 successors, their manager accepted, may have changed too much. Now Manchester City and Liverpool meet with the possibility that the loser will be 10 points behind Arsenal, out of contention before the November international break.
Champions tend to display a consistency and victories over Aston Villa and Real Madrid allowed Arne Slot to smile: “We were actually very consistent (before then) but we were consistent in losing so that wasn’t the idea.” They visit the Etihad Stadium with the scalp of the 15-time European champions but just three points from their last five league games and an admission that, after a summer when some £450m was spent, Liverpool altered too much.
