Time starts with Liverpool's 66-game Premier League run: one loss, and it came against Manchester City. Between May 13, 2018, and February 28, 2020, Jürgen Klopp's side took 179 points from a possible 198, a level that made any defeat in that span a blunt measure of how tight the margin was.
The only setback in those 66 fixtures was the 2-1 loss at the Etihad Stadium on January 3, 2019. John Stones made an 11.2 millimeter goal-line clearance in that match, and that single intervention sits inside a run that otherwise kept Liverpool near the top end of the Premier League table.
Manchester City and Stones
Manchester City were the lone side to beat Liverpool during that stretch, and that is the contradiction at the center of the story. The team that tested Liverpool most was also the team that could actually stop them, which is why the January 3 match is framed as the one that decided the title.
The Stones clearance gives the result its sharpest edge. An 11.2 millimeter margin is not a broad tactical theme or a season-long trend; it is the kind of measurement that turns a title race on a fraction, then leaves the rest of the campaign to be read through that split second.
Jürgen Klopp's 179 points
Klopp's 179 points from 198 possible points explain why the run remains the benchmark here. Liverpool did not need a perfect sequence to build that total, but over 66 fixtures the scale of the return shows how little room opponents had before the final ball or final clearance changed the table.
That is also why the end of the run at Watford matters. The 3-0 defeat on February 29, 2020, arrived after Liverpool's 30-year wait for the league title was as good as over, so the loss did not rewrite the destination as much as it closed the book on an extraordinary stretch.
Siobhan Finneran returns as Time sets 11 October start runs alongside the same Time label, but the football benchmark stays clear: one defeat in 66 league games, and Manchester City provided it.
Andoni Iraola and Manchester City
How Andoni Iraola is supposed to match that standard is the part left hanging. The comparison is simple enough: Liverpool's bar was 66 games, 179 points, and one loss; reproducing that sort of control would mean limiting damage across months, not just surviving one match.
For Liverpool, the lesson is sharper still. A run that strong can still turn on a single clearance, a single goal, and a single night at the Etihad Stadium, which is why the Manchester City defeat remains the reference point when the standard is measured.
