Like Bristol City and Palace — and Napoli and Shakhtar Donetsk before them, in the Champions League — Liverpool took the opposite approach. Klopp told his team, with the lead and through the medium of mime, not to take its feet off City’s throats, and it worked. “There is no alternative way,” Klopp said after the game. “It is either that or you sit on the edge of your box and hope you win the lottery.”

It is tempting to believe that others might spot the pattern, and have the courage to do the same. It does not need to work every time, after all, for a title race of some sort to unfold: Should Manchester United win on Monday, City’s lead in the table would be down to 12 points. Two more bad days for Guardiola’s team would be enough for a little drama, at least, to creep back into proceedings.

Sadly — for everyone but City — that is unlikely. Even without Philippe Coutinho, departed for Barcelona, Liverpool appeared to be the most likely team England could offer to halt City in its tracks. True, Manchester United and Chelsea still have to visit City at the Etihad, and City must travel to Arsenal and Tottenham, but it always felt as if Sunday was the most arduous test that remained.

In part, that was because of City’s remarkably poor record at Anfield — no wins here for 15 years, a period in which City has been on an inexorable rise and Liverpool, largely, has been treading water — but more significantly, it was because Liverpool seemed to possess all the weapons needed to do to Guardiola’s team what Guardiola’s team does to so many others. Liverpool can press like City, can counterattack like City, and can sweep teams aside like City. It just does not do any of it as reliably as City does.

Few other teams in the Premier League — perhaps Tottenham apart — have that skill set. Certainly not enough that City might yet be caught. Going for the kill worked for Liverpool. It likely would not work for many others. This is not an Independence Day moment, a blueprint for how to bring down an empire. Those 10 minutes in the white heat of Anfield guaranteed that City would not end the season unbeaten, but it is not a sign that Guardiola’s team is starting to bend and break with the pressure. It will not be as invincibles, but its place in history still awaits.