Dion Dublin
Former Aston Villa & Man Utd striker on BBC Radio 5 Live

Should be a great game of football. So many great players on show. Two great teams.

I'm expecting goals and good performances.

A double save from Ederson keeps it 0-0.

The first is the best of the two, from a fierce drive from Mo Salah. The second only requires him to drop on a tame follow-up shot from an angle from Roberto Firmino.

Image source, Reuters

Ball in the net... and it is from a cracking low finish from Gabriel Jesus. But he moved too soon to latch on to a through-ball and is caught offside.

Been quite a frantic start. Both teams pressing hard when out of possession.

• Manchester City are attempting to win three consecutive top-flight home matches against Liverpool for the first time since 1937.
• The Reds' only victory in their past 10 league games at the Etihad Stadium came in Jurgen Klopp's first match in charge against City in November 2015.
• Liverpool are looking to complete a Premier League double over City for just the third time.

Simon Stone
BBC Sport at the Etihad Stadium

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp ducked out of the guard of honour and left it to his players, led by skipper Jordan Henderson, to take the applause of the Manchester City players and staff.

Skipper David Silva and manager Pep Guardiola made sure they were near the front.

That must have hurt.

Image source, Reuters

Strap yourselves in. There's pride on the line, if nothing else.

City have had to watch Liverpool wrap up the title but Pep Guardiola's side are trying to win every other trophy this season, and they are going well.

Last season, this fixture was a thriller - with City winning 2-1 and John Stones making a brilliant goal-line clearance to help them secure victory at an electric Etihad Stadium with everyone in the ground knowing the title was on the line.

This scenario is clearly very different. Both teams will have something to prove, of course, but the main thing driving both of them this time will probably be that they don't want to lose. Quite often in games like that, nothing really happens.

There is no way Guardiola will field a weakened team this time, or Jurgen Klopp for that matter, but I just don't expect it to be a classic for some reason. It doesn't help that there won't be any fans there.

Prediction:1-1

Lawro's full predictions v grime MC and Liverpool fan Big Zuu

A reminder of how the two teams line up tonight...

Dion Dublin
Former Aston Villa & Man Utd striker on BBC Radio 5 Live

There's so much pride at stake for the players but especially the managers. One's saying, 'listen, I'm the top man'. The other is saying, 'You can have it for one season and I'm coming back to get you'.

That's the attitude of these two managers, there is so much at stake.

Liverpool

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp talking to Sky Sports:

"I expect an intense game. I don't think City can play another way. If you are not ready for a lot of work, you have no chance at all.

"It is one of the most challenging games ever, but one of the most interesting. I like it, but very difficult.

"We have to do what do usually. We didn't celebrate for a week, we had our night."

If you really feel the need to inject some more excitement into this game, you could get all Chris Finch from the Office about it. Forget the rest of the season, this is the actual title decider.

So, if City can throw this game over a pub they win. And that's it. That's the real quiz.

That will have stung the City players. Some gritted teeth on display. But it's something to think about next season when they set about trying to get that trophy back.

Here come the teams. City first. They guard of honour is in place.

Trouble at Tottenham?

Image source, Reuters

Guy Mowbray
Match of the Day commentator

After beating Crystal Palace last week, Jurgen Klopp immediately looked forward to this game by suggesting it could be "the best game ever played behind closed doors".

That was before his team had definitively secured the title, but it shouldn't make much of a difference to hopes of his words proving prophetic.

Leaving aside our own different allegiances, it has been proved without any doubt whatsoever that these two are the best teams in England at the moment by a distance. Between them, they currently 'own' every trophy available for them to win!

And if an understandable Liverpool drop-off comes now that they've achieved their mission for the season, it will only come after this game.

The tone has been set beautifully by both bosses' pre-match words:

Guardiola: "We're going to make Liverpool feel it for next season and fight for the next chapters."

Klopp: "We go there to play and win a football game. We don't celebrate a thing that happened a week before."

It will all start with a guard of honour for the new champions,about which much continues to be spoken.

My own belief is that it's the right and proper sporting thing to do, in the same way a side beaten in a cup final applauds the winners up the steps to lift the trophy. It is a mark of earned respect to the best team in the land, and - especially in a side of winners like City - will also serve as a motivational bookmark for Guardiola's "next chapters".

Alan Shearer
Former Newcastle captain

Image source, Getty Images

This is a big game even without any silverware riding on it. Liverpool have already taken City's title, and now they want their records too - most points, biggest title-winning margin and most wins.

That is what Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will be demanding. His side have been the best in the country by a million miles this season, and they will want to show that yet again, against their nearest rivals.

Both teams have been incredible going forward but City are certainly not as strong as Liverpool are defensively, and I don't see them keeping the Reds out.

You can listen to live commentary of Manchester City v Liverpool on BBC Radio 5 Live at 20:15 BST on Thursday and watch highlights on Match of the Day 2 at 22:45 on BBC One and the BBC Sport website.

Simon Stone
BBC Sport at the Etihad Stadium

It was only last Thursday that Manchester City's safety advisory group gave the go-ahead for this fixture to be played at the Etihad Stadium.

There were some fans outside when the teams arrived but not in the kind of numbers that would cause anyone a problem and the only shirt on the picture I took belonged to Manchester City.

Image source, BBC Sport

Well, this City v Liverpool game isn't the one we might have hoped for when the fixtures were first released. It isn't even the game we thought we might get when the Premier League restarted last month.

But you have to work with what you've got.

It remains a game between the two best sides in the country, both packed with bags of talent. It should still have a bundle to offer.

You have to imagine City will be up for it, if only to show the points gap between the sides isn't indicative of the gulf in class.

Cheers Tom.

Didn't see that result coming. Jose is making a bit of a mess of this, isn't he?

Hats off to the Blades, though. Chris Wilder is magic.