Before Liverpool came, saw and conquered at the City of Manchester Stadium, their record against that ground's occupants was pretty even.
But there was nothing even about the contest on Saturday evening as the best Reds performance of the season inflicted a damaging defeat on City.
Defenceless Man City
Liverpool's pressing was admirable with the first goal seeing Philippe Coutinho hunting down Bacary Sagna on the Man City right flank, before carrying away his prey's prized possession and prompting the first part of the feeding frenzy as his ball in forced a shaky Eliaquin Mangala to turn it into his own net.
But aside from the pressing that Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool are starting to successfully put into practice away from home, City lacked protection in front of their back four.
So when Liverpool won the ball high up, the defensive shield was quite flimsy, putting the Merseyside club straight in on goal with little resistance.
Interestingly, the pair in front of the Man City back-four consisted of Yaya Toure and the defensive-minded Fernando.
Here are the locations of Liverpool's tackes according to leading statistics website Squawka:
The former Porto midfielder's fellow Brazilian Fernandinho was only used as a substitute, when he could have provided part of a steelier midfield as has been used in some other big games this season.
In the 0-0 Manchester derby draw at Old Trafford for example, Manuel Pellegrini fielded that Brazilian duo in front of the defence with Toure further forward. A similar engine room was used in the impressive 3-1 Champions League win over Sevilla away when a more cautious and reactive approach was required.
With Liverpool likely to press high and leading the line without a target man, City were always going to be vulnerable without adequate protection and so it proved.
Ex-Ireland and Chelsea defender Paddy Mulligan joined me on this week's Rewind to review the Premier League action:
A galaxy between Galacticos and Barca stars
Unfortunately, the Clasico was on at the same time as City v Liverpool, but Real Madrid's problems were all too apparent.
Like City - but in an even more extreme way - they had no protection for a back-four that had to cope with the in-form duo of Luis Suarez and Neymar.
Against weaker opposition when dominance of the ball is expected, Rafa Benitez might have gotten away with Luka Modric and Toni Kroos as the deepest-lying midfield pair (defensive midfielder Casemiro found himself on the bench all of a sudden), but unsurprisingly, Barca's midfield and attack were able to pick their way through with four goals of the highest quality.
Andres Iniesta's build-up and finish for the third was particularly sumptuous, as Barca's system showed up a Real side that shoe-horned star men in without any real direction.
The blame for that may ultimately fall at the feet of Real's Galactico-loving president Florentino Perez, who will surely have noticed the white handkerchiefs waved by his team's supporters as they demonstrated their disdain after that 4-0 home drubbing.
Iniesta scores (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza)
Spurs begin to flex their muscles
Having watched their games against Arsenal and West Ham, there is something potent brewing at White Hart Lane, if they can maintain their momentum throughout the season.
Even with Liverpool showing signs of a revival and stirrings of life at Chelsea, Tottenham are slight favourites for a top four spot, assuming Leicester City fall away after Christmas.
Spurs have a goalscorer in Harry Kane, a high-energy system which the players have bought into, pace across the team and power in an all-Belgian central defensive pair and a defender-turned anchorman in Eric Dier.
They also have some depth as Erik Lamela, for example, was not involved in yesterday's 4-1 home thrashing of a West Ham side which had done well against stronger sides away from home.
Given the way that the Premier League has been going lately, there could be plenty more surprises in store. But one thing is for sure: Tottenham have the makings of a team that can make a real push for Europe this time around.
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