English football's biggest match enters a particularly intriguing latest chapter on Sunday when Manchester United welcome bitter rivals Liverpool to Old Trafford.
Jurgen Klopp is yet to win a league game away at United, but rarely in the long history of this rivalry will Liverpool have made the trip to Old Trafford as such overwhelming favourites.
The Reds have won 17 successive top-flight matches including eight from eight so far this season and know that another triumph at the home of their greatest enemies would see them enter the record books on both counts.
Liverpool are already eight points clear of their nearest challengers and a whopping 15 points above Sunday's hosts, who have won just two of their last 13 league games under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Here, Sports Mole selects a predictably one-sided combined XI from the two squads, using only players available this weekend.
The enormous gulf in class between these two sides this season means that, for the first time, one club provides all 11 players to this 'combined' squad, and in truth many of the first reserves would be Liverpool men too.
In fairness to Manchester United, two of their chief contenders for a place in the XI are unlikely to feature this weekend, with Paul Pogba ruled out and David de Gea a major injury doubt, although Alisson Becker's expected return for Liverpool means that the United keeper would have fallen short even if he had been fully fit.
Of the players available from an injury-plagued United squad it is Harry Maguire who is closest to getting into this team, which would have made a centre-back partnership of the two most expensive defenders in the world. However, Joel Matip's form this season has been outstanding, and his return from injury sees him beat Maguire to the place alongside Virgil van Dijk.
Andrew Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold are easy choices for the full-back roles, particularly with Luke Shaw and Aaron Wan-Bissaka among United's injury doubts, although the latter is expected to be fit for Sunday's match.
Pogba probably would have been United's sole representative had both squads been fully fit, but as it is the midfield trio is a choice between Liverpool players. James Milner may well get the nod for his experience this weekend and would certainly not look out of place in this team, but Klopp's first-choice midfield tends to be Georginio Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson either side of Fabinho, the latter of whom is one of the first names on the team sheet now.
It is more of the same up front, where Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino are some way clear of Marcus Rashford in selection. Most of United's other contenders, such as Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard, are doubts for the game but would not have threatened to dislodge Liverpool's trident regardless.
Barney Corkhill
