Liverpool head coach Arne Slot
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot (Image: ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
From Pep Guardiola's attempts at sign language, the petulance of Ruben Dias through to Bernardo Silva being, well, Bernardo Silva, Manchester City don't always react well to defeat. Particularly when it comes at Anfield.
Liverpool's dismantling of the champions on Sunday afternoon - the visitors could count themselves fortunate the winning margin for Arne Slot's side was only two goals - prompted a range of emotions from the Etihad outfit.
The most distasteful, of course, was that of goalkeeper Stefan Ortega who, having surprisingly been named between the sticks ahead of usual first-choice Ederson, responded to being asked about the Anfield crowd chanting Guardiola could be sacked by declaring Liverpool is "probably not the best part in the UK".
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Ortega is likely to be reminded of those comments for a long time come. But while disparaging of the city in general, he was inadvertently accurate in one respect. Liverpool and Anfield in particular isn't proving the most enjoyable part in the country for visiting clubs to play.
In the last month, Liverpool have hosted the champions of Germany, Europe and England. All three - Bayer Leverkusen, Real Madrid and now City - have been defeated without scoring a goal.
The Reds have played 11 games at home this season with all bar one - the 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in September - having been won. Indeed, they have conceded only three other times while racking up 26 goals. Fortress Anfield, having been rebuilt under Jurgen Klopp, remains very much intact during the Slot era.
But with five of their last six games having been at home, the trend will now be in the opposite direction with six of Liverpool's remaining eight games of the calendar year coming on the road.
That runs starts at Newcastle United on Wednesday night, a venue where Liverpool are unbeaten in almost nine years and have won on five of their last six visits. Indeed, last season's 2-1 triumph against the odds - Darwin Nunez coming off the bench to score twice late on after Virgil van Dijk had been sent off in the first half - was the catalyst for the new-look Reds' unexpected title challenge.
It will nevertheless be a difficult evening. Newcastle have struggled for consistency this term but have reserved their best performances for the visit of leading clubs, having beaten Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in the Premier League and Chelsea in the League Cup, as well as holding City to a draw.
The Reds then end the week with the final Goodison league derby at Everton. It was across Stanley Park that Liverpool last lost on the road in April, with their unbeaten away start of nine games this term their longest such run since the beginning of the 1987/88 when it was ended, yes, at the neighbours.
Next Tuesday, Liverpool are then in Spain to face Girona for their sixth Champions League game. Qualification to the play-offs is already assured, but the Reds will be hoping for a victory that would effectively seal a top-eight berth and a place directly into the last 16 and ease the pressure on the final two matches in the competition's first phase in late January.
After a home game against Fulham, there are two lengthy trips inside four days to face Southampton in the League Cup quarter-final and Tottenham in the Premier League. And after the Boxing Day visit of Leicester City, Slot's side finish the year at West Ham United.
One concern for Liverpool will be that, after leaking just two goals in their first six away games of the campaign, they have conceded twice in each of their last three such matches. Not every home defence will be as accommodating as Southampton last weekend.
And if Anfield has helped put the Reds in a position of great potential this season, their away form will now determine just how much of that can be realised.