A few months ago the chihuahua was nipping at the ankles of the big and little horses of the Premier League title race.
But as the finish line approaches, Liverpool have scurried between the legs of the larger and wealthier animals to leave the title as theirs to lose.
Given that Liverpool and Manchester City are two of the best attacking sides in the country and Jose Mourinho and his brand of negativity was found elsewhere grinding out a 1 - 0 win against 10-men in South Wales, the big match at Anfield turned out to be a particularly terrific affair. A real Super Sunday as Off The Ball would conclude yesterday, especially with the poignancy delivered by the Hillsborough remembrance.
While there are plenty of tactical talking points from Liverpool's 3 - 2 win, a couple of issues do spring to mind and clear to see via Squawka's revelatory data and graphics from that match, writes Off The Ball's Raf Diallo.
Steven Gerrard's early efficieny
The Liverpool captain's tears and team-talk captured plenty of attention after the Reds had secured a truly meaningful win.
But I want to focus on his role in the opening 30 minutes - a period which yielded two goals and a lead that would prove vital.
Gerrard was efficiency personified in that opening third of the match, completing an impressive 95 per cent of his passes (21 of 22 passes), which helped set the more advanced Liverpool players free.
His tackling was also efficient with a 100 per cent success rate in the opening half hour...
The Milner effect
While Liverpool got at Man City in the first half, the game did swing in the Sky Blues' favour once James Milner replaced Jesus Navas with 40 minutes to go.
But, apart from his assist for David Silva, what did the Englishman do differently in comparison to the ex-Sevilla winger?
These Squawka Action Area Maps gives us an idea:
The Action Area Maps show that Milner got on the ball higher up on the right flank at a time in the match when Liverpool had just begun to fade and retreat into their shell.
Pablo Zabaleta's Squawka Action Area Map shows how he went on the attack far more often in the second half than in the first half which gave Milner greater overlapping support than Navas enjoyed.
Indeed when Milner assisted David Silva for City's opening goal, you can see Zabaleta lurking on the outside of the England midfielder, helping to draw a defender away.
Up until Navas' substitution on 50 minutes, Zabaleta only spent 3 per cent of his time on the ball in Liverpool's left back zone. That changed markedly in the final 40 minutes with that number jumping to 26 per cent.
Silva also moved towards the right side of the pitch patrolled by Jon Flanagan in the second half. While the opening half saw the Spaniard get on the ball centrally- indeed a huge 50 per cent of his match action took place in the attacking midfield zone - that dropped to just under 19 per cent in the second half and also saw him get on the ball in the Liverpool left-full back zone 17 per cent of the time.
Interestingly, Gerrard's Action Area Map also shows his presence increase in that left-sided area of the pitch as the game wore on, in order to give more support to Flanagan. In the second half he was involved in the action on the left side even more than the central zone in front of his box.
Second half drop
Despite the fact that Liverpool did go onto win in dramatic fashion, the effectiveness of their pressing did drop markedly from one half to the next.
In the opening 45 minutes, the Reds won eight of 15 tackles and managed nine interceptions, four of which were in the opposition half. The second half was far less impressive in that regard as they completed just three of 11 attempted tackles, while many of their 10 interceptions were closer to the goal than in the opening period.
However the disparity in performances between halves should not be a major surprise given that Liverpool have been uber-successful in the early stages of matches.
