How do the Liverpool and Man City shape up off the pitch?

Manchester City and Liverpool will meet in a blockbuster clash on Thursday night as the Premier League title race starts to truly take shape.

Both clubs have designs on lifting the trophy at the end of the season and Liverpool could potentially move 10 points clear of their rivals with victory at the Etihad Stadium.

City and Liverpool both also have aspirations to become the biggest football brand off the field and both have enormous commercial operations.

We take a closer look at how the two Premier League front-runners compare.

OWNERSHIP

Manchester City: It is just over a decade now since the Abu Dhabi United investment group swept into Manchester and changed the landscape of English football forever.

Overnight, Sheikh Mansour and his associates transformed City from perennial Premier League strugglers to major players in the global transfer market ready and willing to flex their financial muscle.

The club's latest accounts revealed that Sheikh Mansour has directly invested some £1.3billion in everything from world class players to a state-of-the-art training complex.

With an estimated wealth of £20bn, making him the wealthiest club owner in the world, there will undoubtedly be more investment to come yet.

Since 2008, City have won three Premier League titles but have yet to crack the holy grail of winning the Champions League.

Liverpool: The Fenway Sports Group assumed control at Anfield back in October 2010 after fellow American investors George Gillett and Tom Hicks were forced to sell the club.

John W Henry is the club's owner and a familiar face in the stands. He also owns the Boston Red Sox baseball team, a NASCAR team and the Boston Globe newspaper.

The latest Forbes list estimated his wealth at just under £2bn, something he has steadily built since the early 1980s through shrewd investment.

As well as an improvement in the team's fortunes on the field, Henry has also overseen the expansion of Anfield's capacity to 54,074 with a further increase to come in the years ahead.

But success on the field hasn't necessarily followed - they have won just one League Cup since Fenway took over, having a brush with Premier League glory in 2014 and losing last year's Champions League final to Real Madrid.

THE KEY FIGURES

Manchester City: While Sheikh Mansour provides the investment, the more public figure of the ownership is chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.

A busy man, Al Mubarak sits on the board of a number of companies that receive investment by the Abu Dhabi rulers both in the UAE and beyond.

Driving City's bid for commercial success around the world is chief executive Ferran Soriano, who formerly had a similar role at Barcelona.

Under Soriano's guidance, City have exceeded £500m in revenue and reported record profits of £10.4m in their latest financial report.

Of crucial importance in the club's player recruitment strategy is director of football Txiki Begiristain.

Another figure who worked at Barcelona, Begiristain's mission is to enable City to fulfil their objectives in the transfer market.

Liverpool: Chairman Tom Werner has steered Liverpool's journey under the control of the Fenway Sports Group, helping them overcome the legal obstacles of relinquishing the control of Hicks and Gillett.

It has been a largely upward curve on the field since then, especially under the management of Jurgen Klopp, who was appointed in 2015 in what Werner has described as a 'perfect marriage'.

In November 2016, Liverpool decided to create the position of sporting director and Michael Edwards has ensured the new structure has worked well.

It is his responsibility to identify and recruit players that will strengthen Liverpool's squad and Edwards, who was formerly the club's head of performance and analysis, has excelled.

He has overseen some of the biggest signings in the club's history, including defender Virgil van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson, and the benefits are really being felt.

FINANCIAL MIGHT

Manchester City: The latest Forbes Football Rich List placed City at No 5 globally behind Manchester United, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Their estimated value was placed at £1.94bn.

It is certainly impressive progress from a standing start when the Abu Dhabi investment started in 2008, but City have no intention of stopping there.

Their latest set of financial figures registered a profit of £10.4m and revenue in excess of £500m following last year's Premier League triumph.

Al Mubarak said at the time: 'Our journey is not complete and we have more targets to fulfil. We will always strive for more.'

Given the almost limitless resources of their Abu Dhabi owners, City can position themselves in the market for just about any footballer in the world.

They certainly continue to splash the cash, with Riyad Mahrez arriving for £60m and Aymeric Laporte for £57m last year - twice breaking their club's spending record.

Liverpool: Three places below City on the Forbes list in eighth are Liverpool with a current value of £1.53bn, just behind Arsenal and Chelsea.

Their latest set of financial figures saw the club back in the black with an increase in revenue of £62m to £364m on the previous results.

The Reds were in profit by £39m having recorded an overall loss of some £21m the previous year.

Peter Moore, the chief executive, suggested in an interview with the Financial Times last year that non-football events at Anfield, such as concerts, will help boost them above the £500m revenue figure.

In order to compete at the top end of the Premier League and in the Champions League, Liverpool have invested heavily in their playing staff, breaking their record transfer fee last year.

That occurred when they paid £75m to Southampton for defender Virgil Van Dijk, and they followed that up by spending £67m on goalkeeper Alisson as well as £48m on Naby Keita and £39m on Fabinho.

But they do balance the books, with £142m brought in from the sale of Philippe Coutinho to Barcelona last January.

BRAND POWER

Manchester City: It's fair to say that City didn't have much of an international appeal prior to the 2008 takeover and the success it brought.

They had flitted between the first and second divisions for many years and had only returned to the Premier League in 2002. Silverware had eluded them since a League Cup win in 1976.

But with their increasing success on the field, their appeal and global fanbase has swollen. While not as popular as their rivals Manchester United or Liverpool in the Far East or the United States, they are making inroads.

City's Twitter account has 6.55m followers and their Instagram account 9.8m, some way behind their main European rivals, but the numbers are increasing all the time.

The club's Abu Dhabi-run holding company, City Football Group, also owns parts of clubs in the United States, Australia, Japan, Spain and Uruguay, spreading the City message far and wide.

Liverpool: A rich tradition of success means that Liverpool are one of the most famous names in world football and therefore have a huge international following.

Matches played during pre-season tours in Asia, Australia and the United States draw capacity crowds and the Anfield club has a rich tradition to draw upon.

They dominated English football during the 1970s and 1980s, making them the team of choice for many overseas lovers of English football, while that period also saw them win four of their five European Cups.

The club has almost 11m Twitter followers and a further 11.4m fans on Instagram.

With a legends team that tours the world and a network of ambassadors, Liverpool pride themselves in preserving and expanding their links with fans everywhere and it's fair to say they could draw a crowd anywhere on the planet.