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MANCHESTER. — Pep Guardiola says that ­Manchester City’s rivalry with Liverpool reminds him of the famous El Clasico football battles from his days in Spain.

The English Premier League’s top two have lifted four titles in a row between them. That will be five on the spin after this season — with the North West rivals meeting in a potential title shoot-out at the ­Etihad tomorrow.

Man City boss Guardiola holds a 3-1 title lead over Liverpool chief Jurgen Klopp during their recent period of domination.

And Guardiola reckons the way the two clubs have gone at it over the past five years is similar to the way Barcelona and Real Madrid bossed the league in Spain.

He said: “I lived this situation in Barcelona. It was always Madrid, sometimes Atletico Madrid, of course.

“But normally Barca and Madrid. Here it’s always five or six teams but the last five years it was two. “This is the reality in the English Premier League, it shows the consistency of both teams and the structures of both. “What is sure is that Liverpool and Manchester City in recent years, we raised the bar, raised the targets that the English Premier League had before.

“We pushed each other a lot and the other teams realised they had to push more to chase us.

“In the last five years, one year we were a little bit down, last season they had injuries and United was there.

“But both teams in the last half decade we were there, both teams, fighting with each other.”

City lead Liverpool by just a point while third-placed Chelsea are a further THIRTEEN adrift. But at one stage in January, City had opened up a 14-point gap over the Reds and many people considered the title race to be over. — The Sun.