The man in the middle for Sunday's showdown

Chris Kavanagh will take charge of Sunday's Premier League meeting between Liverpool and Manchester City at Anfield, and it is fair to say the appointment will raise a few eyebrows on the red half of Merseyside. The 41-year-old from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, is no stranger to either club, having refereed eight Liverpool Premier League matches last season alone. This will be his first Reds fixture since the 4-2 defeat at Aston Villa on 15 May.

Assisting Kavanagh will be Dan Cook and Nick Greenhalgh on the lines, with Andy Madley as fourth official. Paul Howard takes the VAR seat, with Nick Hopton as his assistant. Notably absent from Premier League duty altogether are Matt Donohue and Blake Antrobus, who remain stood down following the high-profile error in the Manchester derby on 13 September, a match in which they awarded a City goal despite Enzo Fernandez being offside and interfering with play.

History between Kavanagh and this fixture

The last time Kavanagh oversaw a Liverpool versus City clash, the Reds were beaten 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium on 9 November, but the scoreline did not tell the whole story as far as Liverpool were concerned. Virgil van Dijk had what appeared to be an equaliser ruled out, with Andy Robertson adjudged to be in an offside position and interfering with goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma's ability to make the save. Liverpool were sufficiently aggrieved to contact refereeing body PGMOL and raise formal concerns about the call.

Van Dijk was measured but pointed in his post-match comments. "I don't know who was on the VAR, Michael Oliver? I think therefore, the officials at the stadium and the couple behind the screen have to make the right decisions for the game," he said. "Today it was decided the goal wouldn't stand because Andy Robertson was, for any reason, hindering Donnarumma, but I think the goal should have stood, that is all I will say. But I am not the one who is making the decisions."

The Reds captain went further, hinting at a sense of pattern. "I think [the explanation] was just hindering the goalkeeper or something like that? But someone showed me a clip that Man City scored last year against Wolves and the referee was [Chris Kavanagh] back then as well," he said, before catching himself. "I don't know, I've already said too much because the thing is, the decision has been made, we lost 3-0 and we don't make excuses in that sense. We lost 3-0, we have to take it on the chin and move on."

A backdrop unlike any other

All of this arrives against a backdrop that was already electric. Sunday's match is City's first since the independent panel's verdict last week that the club had been found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules across a nine-season period, a ruling City have since appealed. Whatever you make of where that process goes next, the atmosphere at Anfield on Sunday is going to be something else entirely.

Kavanagh, for his part, is no journeyman appointment. At the end of last year he was added to the elite list of UEFA referees from England, joining Michael Oliver on that select group. He will need every ounce of that standing when the whistle blows on Sunday, because between the title implications, the financial verdict hanging over the visitors, and the unresolved feelings about last November's meeting, this is about as loaded a Premier League fixture as it gets.

How Kavanagh handles the pressure of Anfield, and whether the big calls go Liverpool's way this time, could shape the afternoon in ways that last well beyond 90 minutes.