Forgive me while I get a little carried away but last night was a bit special.
That’s the only way to describe the encounter.
A breathless, hair-raising 90 minutes that may well have swung the title pendulum back in Man City’s favour.
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There were countless subplots and narratives but the relentless battle between Raheem Sterling and Andy Robertson stands out.
The best players in their respective positions in the Premier League, this was hammer and tongs, nip and tuck, from start to finish.
Last season Sterling will have seen Robertson in his nightmares after a one-way haunting at Anfield.
If that contest was a boxing match, the towel would have been thrown in before half time.
This time it around it was a proper, 12-round humdinger.
It’s testament to how far Sterling has come in 12 months that Robertson will now be the man happy to see the back of their opponent.
Sterling and Robertson traded blows throughout, the latter edging more of the small battles but the former winning the war.
The City man had the better early on and Robertson was lucky to avoid a penalty for manhandling him.
The Scot then replied, denying Sterling twice and then capitalising on the 24-year-old switching off to set up Liverpool’s equaliser.
But Sterling had the last laugh by roasting Robertson twice in succession, the second of which set up the winner.
Think Paolo Maldini and Ronaldo, Patrick Vieira and Roy Keane.
This was two players at the peak of their powers leaving everything out on the pitch, stirring wonderful pangs of nostalgia and left me yearning for more.
An unstoppable force against an immovable object.
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