Trent Alexander-Arnold is right: Jurgen Klopp winning another Premier League title with Liverpool would overshadow Pep Guardiola’s Man City achievements
‘This means more’ – it was a self-aggrandising slogan pushed by Liverpool’s marketing department a few years back that understandably annoyed the hell out of rival supporters.
The implication was that no matter how many trophies other clubs won, they would never carry quite the same weight as those lifted by Liverpool, which was – and remains – pure bullsh*t. Other supporters have suffered too, after all. Liverpool do not have a monopoly on meaningful title triumphs (nor do they own the copyright on fist pumps while we’re at it!).
So, Trent Alexander-Arnold’s take on the Liverpool-Manchester City rivalry that has defined the Premier League over the past five years will have left many football fans rolling their eyes once again.
“It’s tough,” the right-back told FourFourTwo. “We’re up against a machine that’s built to win – that’s the simplest way to describe City and their organisation.
“Looking back on this era, although they’ve won more titles than us and have probably been more successful, our trophies will mean more to us and our fanbase because of the situations at both clubs, financially. How both clubs have built their teams and the manner in which we’ve done it, probably means more to our fans.”
Some victories more valuable than others
Ruben Dias and Erling Haaland have already issued biting replies to Alexander-Arnold’s comments, pointing out that the right-back has no idea how it feels to win a treble. The thing is, though, there is an element of truth in what Alexander-Arnold is saying. Not about what the titles mean to the fans, of course.
The City supporters who remember the nightmare of relegation to the third tier of English football are now revelling in a beautiful dream. Each and every trophy must feel so unbelievable and, therefore, so precious. However, there is simply no denying that certain victories are more valuable than others. It has ever been thus in football.
Francesco Totti always insisted that he was never in the least bit jealous of Juventus’ success during his playing days, and still has no regrets over remaining at Roma for the duration of his professional career, because one Scudetto with his hometown club was “worth 10 elsewhere”.
Kylian Mbappe, by contrast, is closing in on a sixth Ligue 1 title in his native Paris – yet the championship he won with Monaco will forever be a far more significant achievement given PSG’s dominance of French football for well over a decade.
And surely even Liverpool fans would admit that their first English top-flight title for 30 years was no more special than Napoli’s long-awaited Serie A win last season – and that neither feat compares to Leicester City’s Premier League miracle of 2016?
Legacies on the line at Anfield
The point is that when it comes to appraising success, context is always key, which is why Sunday’s latest meeting between Liverpool and Manchester City is so important. Legacies are on the line at Anfield.
This is no title-decider, of course. It’s too tight at the top of the table to make such a lofty claim at this stage of the season, particularly when there are more than 10 rounds remaining and a third team in play, with Arsenal likely to end the day at the summit of the standings if Liverpool and City play out a draw for the second time this season.
Nonetheless, the victor at Anfield would undeniably benefit from a massive amount of momentum, which could well prove decisive given both sides are flying as it is.
Liverpool won the first major trophy of the season, the Carabao Cup, in extraordinary circumstances, with the injury-ravaged Reds defeating Chelsea “billion-pound bottle jobs” with a selection of “Jurgen Klopp’s kids”.
However, if the return of the “mentality monsters” is a terrifying prospect for Liverpool’s rivals, then so too is the sight of Pep Guardiola’s winning “machine” once again clicking into gear at the business end of the season.
City’s current 20-match unbeaten run stretches all the way back to December, making a mockery of Guardiola’s claim that his stellar squad has next to no hope of winning a second-consecutive treble. It is not only possible; it is actually probable.
City are just a point behind Liverpool in the Premier League table (with a more favourable fixture list), are the clear favourites to win the Champions League and face Newcastle in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup. History is there for the taking.
