🏆 It's Liverpool's turn to knock Manchester United off their perch | OneFootball

The Liverpool supporters who watched their side lift the club’s 18th league title back in May 1990 could never have imagined that almost 30 years later, they’d still be waiting for number 19.

At the time, fierce rivals Manchester United only had a comparatively paltry seven league titles to their name, with the last one coming 23 years previously in 1967.

But Liverpool’s sharp fall from grace at the beginning of the 1990s coincided with United’s rise from the ashes, and a staggering 13 titles in 23 years saw Sir Alex Ferguson’s Premier League juggernaut first equal and then surpass the record held by the club at the other end of the A580.

“My greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their fucking perch,” Ferguson once famously said.

But as we head towards what will be the 231st meeting between these two grand old clubs, United’s place on that perch is looking rather precarious.

It’s been six years since Sir Alex hung up his hairdryer and, consequently, six years since United last lifted the league title.

Back in February, current boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer estimated it would take them at least two years to be in a position to challenge for English football’s premier crown again but the way things are going, that seems incredibly generous.

United have made their worst start to a season in 30 years and haven’t won away from home in any competition for a run of 11 games spanning almost seven months.

They’ve only managed nine goals in their first eight matches of this campaign and currently sit eight places and five points behind Crystal Palace in the table.

Just when you think they’ve reached the nadir of the post-Ferguson era, the ground beneath them gives way and they somehow sink further into the mire.

The contrast between United and Liverpool could hardly be more stark at the moment.

This weekend, the reigning European champions head to Old Trafford aiming to re-establish their eight point lead at the top of the Premier League having won all of their first eight matches of the new season.

Another victory on Sunday will see Jürgen Klopp’s side equal a record held by Chelsea for the most consecutive victories at the start of a Premier League season (9) and a record held by Manchester City for the most successive top-flight victories (18).

And though it’s foolish to get too carried away in mid-October, the Anfield faithful must surely be quietly confident that this will finally be the year their three-decade wait for a league title comes to an end.

If that does happen, it would put them on 19 but still one short of United’s all-time record. Even so, at this moment in time, you’d have to back Liverpool to win the race to 21.

In recent years, meetings between United and Liverpool have often failed to live up to their billing as English football’s greatest ding-dong.

Until the Merseysiders’ recent push for power, it was perhaps more appropriately referred to in some quarters as the ‘two bald men fighting over a comb derby’ and the great shame about this rivalry is that the two clubs never seem to be at the peak of their powers at the same time.

Of course, Liverpool will know all about United’s current struggle to stay relevant. In the 29 seasons since their last league title, the Reds’ average league finish has been somewhere between 4th and 5th.

In the six seasons since their last league title, United’s average league finish has been 5th.

The home supporters heading to Old Trafford in hope more than expectation this Sunday can only pray that their wait to once again be England’s top dogs will be a lot shorter than 30 years.