Klopp, Liverpool obstacle emerges to threaten City’s treble repeat as Pep *finally* climbs his Everest

It’s been a huge news day. Jurgen Klopp is leaving Liverpool but more importantly, Manchester City have *finally* scored and won at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Up until Friday morning, this January transfer window had been a non-event. It’s a good job Spurs have been active as their Financial Fair Play-impacted Premier League rivals have been too scared to do anything of note.

Yet just when you thought Tottenham would be the only saviours of the transfer window, that changed when shockwaves were sent around the footballing world with Jurgen Klopp announcing that he is going to leave Liverpool at the end of this season. 

Klopp‘s face has been all over great (we used to be) and bad (you know who you are) websites throughout the day and the click-worthy buzz surrounding the Liverpool boss is unlikely to subside for a while yet.

So it feels somewhat remiss that I have an actual football match to talk about and a pretty important one at that.

Spurs vs Man City is probably the pick of this year’s FA Cup fourth-round ties and despite it being rife with narrative in its own right, I will play the SEO game and make it about the man of the hour, but first…

Spurs and City both likely let out a frustrated sigh upon hearing that they had been drawn to face each other in the FA Cup fourth round.

Spurs would have preferred an easier tie with the FA Cup being their only remaining hope of a trophy this season. And Man City will not have fancied a trip to face their bogey team with their record at Tottenham being a rare blot on Guardiola’s time as manager of the Premier League champions.

Away trips to the north London outfit have been City’s kryptonite as they – before this FA Cup clash – had not won or scored in any of their five visits to Spurs during Guardiola’s illustrious reign.

Being the perfectionist he is, this embarrassing stat was always going to bug Guardiola. And despite winning the treble in 2022/23, the unsatisfied Spaniard insisted last year that he would not leave Man City until his side scored at Tottenham.

“Score a goal against Spurs away. It’s why I stay, I want to beat Spurs away.”

And if Guardiola is a man of his word, we may see him follow Klopp in leaving English football as the Man City boss climbed his Everest on Friday night in London.

On a night of missed chances, City surpassed 100 attempts without scoring at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and their frustration was visibly growing before Nathan Ake did the unthinkable in the 88th minute.

Kevin De Bruyne sent in an inswinging corner towards Spurs goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario, who failed to collect the ball with Ruben Dias backing into him. This enabled Ake to stab the ball into the net and after a tense VAR check, City’s curse ended as they took the lead and saw out the game to win 1-0.

In what turned out to be an expectedly entertaining contest, City’s inability to convert their chances was becoming increasingly laughable but Guardiola will be relieved to get this Spurs-shaped monkey off his back.

Missing Erling Haaland, Man City were lacking a clinical edge on Friday night but with Kevin De Bruyne back in the fold, they are starting to purr at the right time.

Time and time again they never fail to make those who dare to doubt them during their yearly early-season dip in form look stupid when they predictably hit their stride at this time of year.

Interestingly, City’s copy and paste job from 2022/23 is on track ahead of another treble pursuit (sorry, I’m not counting the FIFA Club World Cup). After exiting the Carabao Cup prematurely to Newcastle (as they did last season at the hands of Southampton), Guardiola’s side will go full speed ahead in pursuit of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup once again.

The only club (and manager) capable of stopping them in their tracks is Liverpool and Klopp, who are going to be particularly motivated with the German nearing the end of his tenure at Anfield.

Top of the Premier League and still in the FA Cup, Liverpool will be determined to make Klopp’s sendoff a perfect one and a few of those so-called special Anfield nights will help them on their way.

The final chapter of the rivalry between Klopp/Liverpool and Guardiola/Man City is about to be written and knowing how these two elite managers operate, this run-in will surely live up to the hype.