Initially, then, it was easy to assume that Klopp and Guardiola were simply trying to kill each other with kindness, even if it was not immediately clear what advantage, for example, Klopp’s describing Manchester City as “the best team in the world” might confer on Liverpool.

So powerful is the legacy of Ferguson, so deep-seated the obsession with mind games, that it has taken a while to realize that there are no thorns hidden among the garlands, to remember that praise can have a function other than piling pressure on an opponent. Not everything is a play. Klopp admires the team Guardiola has built. Guardiola respects the transformation Klopp has overseen. It is the same among the players: Virgil van Dijk has voted for Raheem Sterling as player of the year. The ultimate destination of the title will not change that. Compliments can be sincere.

With the race so tight — Liverpool (82 points) ahead at the moment, but City (80) with a game in hand — that mutual admiration does not extend to the fans of the two clubs, of course. There is no particular historical enmity between Manchester City and Liverpool, but over the last year a distinctly modern rivalry has started to take shape.

At first, it seemed to manifest primarily online, performative and point-scoring, in which Liverpool resented City’s wealth, ambition and relevance, and City chafed at Liverpool’s history and fame. Over the last year that has changed, bleeding into the three-dimensional world, invoked in songs that sweep down from the stands at the Etihad Stadium, in particular.