The Warm-Up: Klopp topples Pep in seven-goal thriller, Alexis Sanchez is going to the highest bidder

The more we hype the big games, history suggests, the more cagey they are. This one, though, looked like the ultimate exception to the rule.

First, there was Liverpool – goalkeeperless Liverpool, with their new £75m security fence Virgil Van Dijk ruled out with a tight hamstring, with their rotating carousel of attacking options, and with a manager who equates sitting back and defending with “hoping to win the lottery”.

Then, Manchester City – unbeaten league leaders, quadruple hunters, an unhackable string of footballing code that had apparently hacked the Premier League, leaving behind just a sad scrap for places 2-4. They had wiped the floor with Liverpool back in September, 5-0.

That aura was dismantled, steamrollered, chased down and given a kicking. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain slammed a shot past Ederson within ten minutes to open the scoring. On the hour, Roberto Firmino restored their lead with an absolutely insolent finish – 70% chip, 30% curl – over the City goalkeeper. Sadio Mane swiped a shot into the top corner. Mohamed Salah, feeling slightly left out, punished a mishit Ederson clearance by lofting the ball back over the Brazilian’s head.

Somewhere in between all that, Andrew Robertson ran his own 70-yard, L-shaped personal drill, closing down four City players – one by one – as if they had stolen his school bag for the very last time and he just wasn’t going to take any more of their s**t.

Make your own mind up about what this means for City’s Premier League title – already packaged up and paid out – but Liverpool demonstrated what can happen when you successfully get near enough to City to get in their face.

Still, City could console themselves with a conclusion to the transfer saga that would finally bring Alexis Sanchez to the Etihad to bolster their push for four trophies.

Oh.

City’s sudden refusal to be held to ransom has opened the door for Manchester United. And in they’ve apparently stepped, dragging an unwanted Henrikh Mkhitaryan behind them, to offer Arsenal the asking price for their best player and then some. Arsene Wenger had to do without the “half in and half out” Sanchez for the defeat at Bournemouth, but refused to say – even if he knew – where the 29-year-old would be heading within the next 48 hours.

With City also dallying over what effect Sanchez’s prospective wage demands would have on their settled dressing room, United are reportedly prepared to make him the highest-paid player in the Premier League.

A decision that previously seemed clear-cut now looks like quite the head-scratcher. But it looks increasingly like Alexis Sanchez will spend the rest of the season in red after all. What a table-turner of a weekend.

– Rutger Hauer, Blade Runner (1982)

The January transfer window has become a paranoid, hyperactive, cynical month in the football calendar, but even the filthy business of player trading can have its life-affirming moments.

Barcelona sealed the £10.5m signing of giant Colombian defender Yerry Mina, who was unveiled in the usual fashion…except for the fact that it was screened live to his hometown of Guachene, where the locals celebrated in style.

Can the Yerry Mina Story get any nicer? Actually, yes. Here’s his dad, explaining why he’s called Yerry.

It was his mother who picked the name. We really liked the Tom and Jerry cartoons and that’s where she chose the name, although we decided to use a Y.

Here’s a Very Serious Letter from Ken Tomlinson (estimated date of birth: 1,000,000 BC) to the Sheffield Star, raising awareness of a very serious issue plaguing modern football: women “don’t sound right” talking about football on TV.

Hard to pinpoint the lowest lowlight here – the “as many as six women” stat, the use of “it’s a man’s game” without irony, the near-treasonous act of spelling Des Lynam’s name wrong, or the phrase “girl linesman”.

No matter, though, because Jacqui Oatley was on hand to deal with it.

Enjoy your cuppa, Ken.

This week witnessed the final pixellated breaths of what me and your dad fondly remember as Ceefax, switched off for public use years ago but still used in-house at the BBC.

So long, old friend. I guess we’ll never need your slowly scrolling pages and eight-colour palette ever ag….BUT WAIT A MOMENT.

Could there be any better way to display the new-fangled concept of Expected Goals (xG) than in Ceefax form? Nope, no there could not.

Chelsea welcome Norwich to Stamford Bridge for an FA Cup third-round replay this week, after a 0-0 draw at Carrow Road first time out. Funnily enough the exact same thing happened 16 years ago, to the very day. So who gets to recreate this on Wednesday night?

It’s on! It’s alive! The title race is back! Manchester United, 15 points behind City and with a goal difference just 21 worse, welcome Stoke’s managerless lambs to the Old Trafford slaughter. Would be…quite something is they went and lost, wouldn’t it?