The test for Liverpool against Manchester City on Sunday is not of their title credentials. That ship has sailed. Instead it is of how far Arne Slot’s side have truly progressed since their title defence was holed.

Slot feels Liverpool’s displays have warranted defeat only occasionally this season – late lapses, set-piece failures and wasted chances have been more common explanations than the overall performance – and the 3-0 reverse at the Etihad Stadium in November was certainly one of them. The controversy over Virgil van Dijk’s disallowed header at 1-0 still lingers for the Dutchman but does not prevent him holding his hands up.

“In the first half we were outplayed for large parts,” he reiterated this week. “We have shown we are able to compete with any team except for large parts of the first half against City. But it also helped [them] that the goal was disallowed for the wrong reasons in my opinion and they got a penalty. But they were the better team. We want to show a different side of us [on Sunday].”

That defeat, in the 1,000th match of Pep Guardiola’s managerial career, was Liverpool’s seventh in the sequence of nine...