Liverpool know all about Manchester United’s pain watching a hated enemy rise again

On Merseyside it felt like the apocalypse was about to happen. It was not four horsemen who caused terror in 1993 but 11 Red Devils. In the course of four short weeks, Manchester United shed 26 years of exponential misery and became champions for the first time in a generation. It was a traumatic time for Liverpool fans and the legions of Anyone But United (ABU) types across the country.

It started on Easter Saturday. The stage was set for United’s annual collapse. Sheffield Wednesday led 1-0 at Old Trafford as the minutes dribbled away. The end of another title challenge seemed inevitable – by now, everyone believed flakiness was built into United’s psyche. Then Steve Bruce equalised in the 86th minute and added a second in stoppage time. The complexion of English football changed. The scenes became iconic: Alex Ferguson, still a commoner, awkwardly punched the air with both hands and performed a jig; Brian Kidd slid to his knees on the pitch. A seismic shift was occurring in the domestic game. Over the next month United turned a tight top-flight race with Aston Villa and Norwich City into a 10-point procession. Old Trafford’s long title drought was over.

Liverpool’s have suffered an even longer era of disappointment in the league. The clock is at 30 years and still ticking. United, the only team to take points off Jurgen Klopp’s side this season, go to Anfield on Sunday to try and put a brake on the runaway Premier League leaders. Their supporters feel like Kopites in 1993. There is a sickening feeling that grows with every victory that nudges your great rivals towards glory. Stretford Enders are hoping Klopp’s men will freefall into an epic collapse – inspired, of course, by a United victory at Anfield. They are not the only ones.

Liverpool and United are similar in many ways. These are huge clubs – and not shy of letting other teams know it. Both are conscious of their own prestige and project an arrogance that can irritate opponents. They are wealthy and generate massive support, fans whose sense of entitlement can be palpable. It is not hard to see why so many people take pleasure when things go wrong for them. They are easy clubs to dislike.

There seems to be a firestorm of fury developing around Liverpool – at least on social media. Bizarre conspiracy theories abound. Some believe the football authorities have gone out of their way to make life easier for Klopp and that the ruling bodies are desperate to see the title go to Anfield. It seems strange that the plotters would wait three decades to engineer a Liverpool success. Others have taken to referring to the club as LiVARpool, as if the entire point of VAR is to ensure Klopp’s team wins the league. This sort of palpable nonsense is amplified by social media.

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There are a lot of complaints that Liverpool dominate the media. The same accusation was bandied around about United in the early 90s. The answer to this is simple. Liverpool winning the title after a 30-year dry spell is as huge a story as United breaking their hoodoo after 26 seasons. Between now and May, the airwaves, column inches and webpages will be dominated by Klopp’s team. It is not favouritism. United got the same treatment.

So what was it like in 1993 for those who sat in the anti-United camp? It was dreadful. Perhaps the greatest fear was nuclear levels of toxic gloating that would explode from Old Trafford. After 26 years of pent-up frustration, the smugness was surely going to be unbearable. And it was. But, like anything in football, it had a short shelf-life.

Yes, Merseyside went through a brief spell of mourning but, remarkably, the sun still rose and set. ABU nation was deflated but soon regrouped and focused on the vain hope that Ferguson’s first title was an aberration and not the new norm. The game moves on fast and even before the hangovers had settled in Manchester, everyone’s thoughts turned to next season.

The same will happen whenever Klopp’s team become mathematically secure at the top of the table. Liverpool fans will attempt to be insufferable but that takes up too much energy to maintain for any serious length of time. Their detractors will fulminate with bitterness and then become distracted by the Euros.

So do not worry. Liverpool winning the league will not be so bad. Klopp has had the decency to be so far ahead of the rest of the division in January that everyone will have plenty of time to prepare for the eventuality. Ferguson, with typical bad grace, waited until late to spring his new era of dominance on the nation. A Liverpool title will not be cataclysmic, even if you really hate the club.

And as soon as Liverpool are crowned champions, everyone can turn their attention to Arsenal. Sixteen years without a title? Their clock is ticking even as Anfield’s gets ready to reset.