Can Klopp finally gain the upper hand and clinch Premier League title?

Last month's Merseyside derby was not the first time that Jurgen Klopp has sprinted from the dugout in a delirious dash across the pitch.

He did it at Mainz a few times, and he did it in Munich in April 2015. Manuel Neuer had just thundered a penalty against the crossbar and sent Borussia Dortmund into the final of the German Cup. Klopp and all his fellow Dortmunders hared onto the pitch to celebrate. They rampaged past the Bayern Munich bench, ignoring an ashen-faced Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola didn't hold it against him. Who would have done? The nerve-wracking penalty shoot-out victory in 2015 was Klopp's last game against Bayern as Dortmund coach. It was also his last great triumph at Borussia, who would go on to lose the final against Wolfsburg. After a troubled final year, nobody could begrudge Klopp a bit of unadulterated joy.

That game was the final act of Klopp and Guardiola's two-year rivalry in Germany. The two men, who are now slugging it out for the Premier League title, had by then built up a healthy mutual admiration.

When Guardiola arrived in England in 2016, many were eagerly anticipating the resumption of his once bitter rivalry with Jose Mourinho. Instead, it is he and Klopp who have cultivated the best managerial clash. While Mourinho is yesterday's man, Klopp and Guardiola have both cemented their status as pioneers of the modern game.

Their relationship is also a good deal more chummy than the eye-gouging antagonism which once reigned between Guardiola and Mourinho. Both men have repeatedly lavished praise on the other, and described each other on occasion as 'the best in the world'. If they ever have a dig at each other, it is more likely to be in jest.

'I don't read. I start reading, and before I know it, I'm reading about Jurgen Klopp,' joked Guardiola at a recent event at the University of Liverpool. 'I can't be f****d with that.'

The audience laughed, just as everyone had laughed in 2013, when Klopp was preparing to take on Guardiola for the first time in the German Super Cup. Asked on TV what he thought of the new Bayern coach, Klopp quipped: 'He looks good. He has a very nice figure.'

That game, which ended in a resounding 4-2 win for Klopp, was the beginning of a rivalry which, in theory, is irresistible, a clash of two coaches who innovated two very different but equally enthralling styles of attacking football. What could be more fun than Klopp's gegenpressing versus Guardiola's tiki-taka, the heavy metal band versus the orchestra?

Yet in practice, the rivalry never quite took off in Germany. In eight meetings between 2013 and 2015, Klopp and Guardiola beat each other four times each, and Klopp certainly staked his claim to be one of Guardiola's bogeymen. Yet despite two Super Cup wins and that penalty shoot-out victory in 2015, Bayern and Guardiola were a class apart in those two years. They won league titles by thumping margins and beat Dortmund to the cup in 2014.

It is tempting to put that down to Bayern's aggressive transfer policy. Mario Gotze and Robert Lewandowski both left Dortmund for Bayern in the Klopp-Guardiola years, and there are those who will say that, had he not pinched all Klopp's best players, the Catalan would not have been so dominant.

The reality is not so simple. The Gotze and Lewandowski transfers may have unsettled Dortmund, but they were only the smallest symptom of a much broader trend. While Guardiola was constructing one of the best Bayern Munich teams in history, Klopp's Dortmund were already beginning to wane.

The relentless intensity of his style had caught up with a largely unchanged team, and in 2014-15 they hit a wall, only escaping a relegation fight in the second half of the season. The timing just wasn't right for the great Klopp-Guardiola rivalry.

In the Premier League, though, the stars have aligned. Klopp's Liverpool and Guardiola's Manchester City have developed almost in parallel, and are now undisputedly the best two teams in England. The 4-3 last January, the Champions League quarter-final and the current table speak for themselves. Liverpool, more than anyone else, are the team who Guardiola has to fear. The Premier League is going to get a thrilling title race.

Back in 2014, Klopp cracked another joke ahead of the German Cup final. The cup, he said, was the biggest prize of all because you can get to it faster than the Champions League or the league title. Then he turned to Guardiola, who had just won his first Bundesliga title.

'I think the league is enough, don't let anyone tell you otherwise,' he grinned.

Guardiola didn't listen. Bayern beat Dortmund 2-0 in extra-time. Yet times have changed since then. In England, the fear is gone and the rivalry has come into its own. Perhaps in England, Klopp can finally beat Guardiola to a piece of silverware.