You’ll Never Walk Alone. Superbia In Proelio. This Means More. Blue Moon Rising. Red v Blue. Kopites v Cityzens. For the last time in Our League, Jürgen Klopp will take on Pep Guardiola. Cue intro: the Liverpool poet, celebrating Jürg via the medium of folksy verse, and sound-clash that with a braggadocio Manc rapper in big coat employing a groin-led swagger. Next: zoom in on Anfield. (Any TV execs looking for a freelance director, get in touch with Football Daily.) Cliche aside, this is a big one. It’s way too early in the season to be the title decider, not least because Arsenal are racking up big wins as the Third Way, but it holds historical significance. It has been the most glorious Liverpool era since Bobby and Sheila Grant were household names, and yet, even if they win the title come May, the Klopp era will conclude with two titles compared to Guardiola’s five. And from one of Liverpool’s greatest teams.

Perhaps the leading reason why Klopp “thought my energy level was endless and now it is not”, as he explained the leaving of Liverpool, was City. Guardiola’s City, specifically. If Klopp felt he could not do the job “again and again and again and again”, the Spaniard has always looked as if he could do his job again and again and again and again. And again. Though perhaps there comes a time when the lack of a peer, a manager who can stare him in the face to be just as proud of their achievements, might change Guardiola’s extra-terrestrial motivation levels. The pair have driven standards in the Premier League higher such that, with Liverpool being in Big Vase this season, there seem to be few capable of stopping City winning Big Cup again.

Of course, there are caveats, 115 thrown around liberally by those suspicious of the blue machine. Klopp has only rarely strayed into the territory of pointing to City being able to cash out petrodollars while he relies on Bostonian venture capitalist dollars. “They can do what they want,” he lamented in 2022. “We cannot act like them, it is not possible.” That led to an almighty hoo-ha between the club’s PR departments, followed by uneasy truce. Klopp has lately tempered his view. “If you want to blame anyone for not winning [Big Cup] three more times then it’s me,” he parped during that farewell announcement. He and Pep keep their respectful distance. It has been a rivalry without personal beef.

So, thank you, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Erling Haaland, for stoking the fires in, er, a tactic-titled magazine interview the Liverpool man probably did last month, via a fairly tame riposte from the Norwegian. “How both clubs have built their teams and the manner in which we’ve done it, probably means more to our fans,” roared Alexander-Arnold. “I’ve been here one year and won the treble and it was quite a nice feeling, I do not think he knows exactly this feeling,” howled Haaland. Phew! Fire up the montages! This IS MASSIVE.

“This weekend sees the return of the Women’s FA Cup with the quarter-finals and the chance for eight clubs to get a step nearer to a prestigious Wembley final. This should be a key weekend in the calendar but many fans won’t realise it is happening” – Kelly Simmons used to be director of the women’s game, so we should probably listen when she assesses how to soup up the competition.

Re: FFP issues (yesterday’s Football Daily). I feel for Big Website’s undoubtedly more talented journalists. Hunter Davies got to sit in a dressing room and observe the complex psychological interactions between Mike England and Cyril Davies. Your modern football hack usually has to write about issues every bit as fascinating as an offset mortgage” – Jon Millard.

Re: Leicester City’s simultaneous here/not here strategy of attempting to avoid potential FFP punishment. Schrödinger’s Fox?” – Steve Malone.

With all this tea-timely chatter about Colorado, our local pro club (Football Daily letters passim), it feels worth sharing with readers that the Rapids’ home stadium was closed for a while in 2019 by a bunch of groundhogs carrying the actual plague” – Ivan Maddox.

Send letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … Steve Malone.

Like a group of thirtysomething lads on a stag do, Liverpool enjoyed their night out in Prague – especially Darwin Núñez. The fun-time Uruguayan scored twice in a 5-1 first leg victory in the last-16 tie and was lauded by Jürgen Klopp as having “quality coming out of his ears”. He might want the medical team to check that out. Over in Freiburg, David Moyes turned a deep shade of purple, fuming over a spot-kick not given to West Ham late on in the 1-0 defeat when Noah Weisshaupt did a fine Gordon Banks impression to block Tomas Soucek’s shot. “It’s a penalty,” Moyes growled. “If you have two hands above your head, it is a penalty … with Uefa, if anything hits your arms they tend to give penalty kicks,” he continued, perhaps in the vain hope that if he said “penalty” three times the clocks would magically wind back and the kick would be given.

It was a grim return to Italy for Roberto De Zerbi as Brighton shipped four goals without reply at Roma, where Seagulls fans were pelted with bottles, lighters and coins in the away end, a day after two supporters were stabbed by a masked gang. “We are not used to playing this competition and today we paid everything,” sighed De Zerbi. It was a happier trip abroad for Rangers boss Philippe Clement, who was left feeling like a gushing father after the 2-2 draw at Benfica. “I’m really proud of the performance,” he trilled. “The result remains a difficult one. We were really close to making a miracle by winning here as the first team ever in [Big Vase].” And Xabi Alonso’s Leverkusen remain invincible – but only just – after Patrik Schick’s 92nd-minute strike earned them a 2-2 draw at Qarabag. “To be honest, I’m not too scared of the first defeat,” soothed Alonso. “It can happen … I won’t be worried.”

Tottenham players have been preparing for their potentially Big Cup qualification-defining clash with Aston Villa by … playing darts, of course. Perhaps in an attempt to prove to Neal Maupay that they own the rights to the Darts Celebration™, James Maddison and Micky van de Ven took on former world champion Michael Smith and Nathan Aspinall, with legendary referee Russ Bray calling the shots.

Liverpool’s owners have met with Michael Edwards in an attempt to convince their former sporting director and transfer guru to shape the post-Jürgen Klopp era at Anfield by returning to the club.

Chris Wilder is flying out to Saudi Arabia next week to discuss Sheffield United’s future with owner Prince Abdullah in “four or five days” of meetings, which sounds pretty in-depth to us. “They understand the situation that we’re in. They’re not liking the situation,” deadpanned Wilder. “There’s still some life in us. I’ve not been told we’re relegated yet.”

Erik ten Hag reckons he may have won 75 of his first 100 Manchester United matches – rather than 61 – if not for a knack list he claims no team would cope with. And if Football Daily had wheels, it would be a wagon.

Mikel Arteta is chuffed after being named Premier League manager of the month for February. “It’s a great honour in this league to get recognised in this,” trilled the Arsenal boss. “I want to say thank you to the team and the staff for always being supportive and making this happen.”

Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier has been ruled out for the next two matches with unspecified minor-knack and will likely miss England’s upcoming meaningless friendlies.

Rebecca Welch, the first woman to referee a Premier League match, is to be inducted into the National Football Museum’s Hall of Fame. “It’s quite overwhelming,” she declared. “It doesn’t feel real to me.”

Chelsea will face Arsenal in the Conti Cup final after Lauren James’s goal sank Manchester City 1-0.

And Tin Pot. Ajax 0-0 Aston Villa. Read all about it. Or don’t.

Sunny Singh Gill will become the first British South Asian to referee a Premier League game, when he takes charge of Crystal Palace v Luton on Saturday. Louise Taylor has more.

It’s all a bit tight in the Championship. Ben Fisher untangles how the push for promotion is shaping up, before third-placed Leeds visit fellow promotion hopefuls Sheffield Wednesday on Friday night.

A huge weekend awaits at the top, bottom and Clattenberg of the Premier League. Here are 10 things to look out for.

If you know how many goals the Blades have shipped at home in the league so far this season, you’ll be off to a flyer in our sports quiz of the week.

🎵 Go go MLS power rankings … 🎵

And critical analysis is sorely and suspiciously lacking in Apple TV’s coverage of MLS, sniffs Tom Dart.

April 1992 and Swansea City’s John Williams – the Flying Postman himself – crosses the line to win the Rumbelows Sprint Challenge at Wembley, the main course to the dessert that would be the subsequent Milk Cup final (Manchester United 1-0 Nottingham Forest). Williams surged through the field after a slow start to win in 11.49 seconds, collecting a cheque for £10,000 and new TV from Rumbelows. “I put a deposit down on a house and bought a car, a Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9,” Williams later told FourFourTwo. “It’s nothing compared to the Bentleys today, but I was just a lad from inner-city Birmingham. And loads of the lads had backed me to win at 16-1, so they were pretty happy.”