It is September 11th 1999 and Manchester United are travelling the short distance down the M62 to a ground where a very special reception is always reserved for them.

The animosity between United and Liverpool is enshrined in our culture, with a hostility that is embedded in geographical and historic grievances and a rivalry that is dramatically heightened by the fact that both clubs have competed for dominance of English football since seemingly forever. Books have been written on their toxic relationship. Documentaries made.

It is a fiery blockbuster of a game that is routinely compared to the other great rivalries around the globe – from the mutual loathing that makes any Boca Juniors and River Plate clash so utterly compelling to the Old Firm derby – and for whatever reason the situation is always piqued even further when the fixture takes place at Anfield.

So it is fair to imagine Alex Ferguson and his team had faces set for battle on that coach heading down the motorway with banter kept to a minimum and then only to hide the adrenaline and nerves that merged in knotted stomachs. After all, thirteen years earlier the players were attacked with an unidentified gas as they entered the stadium, necessitating some to barrel through the corridors and run straight onto the pitch to seek fresh air. It also necessitated retired Liverpool manager Bob Paisley to accompany the United contingent the following season in an act of solidarity and to ensure their safety.

“Atmosphere, emotion, feeling; it took me years to get used to playing at Anfield. Years”. That was Gary Neville’s candid take, admitted on Sky Sports last autumn. Former United boss Ron Atkinson meanwhile reaches for an analogy only used for the most combustible of match-ups: “It was war.”

Apprehension then was understandable for Beckham and Scholes, Giggs and Stam as they departed their vehicle and entered the belly of their beast. On the pitch however, with the game underway, we can assume any misgivings vanished into thin air.

The visitors won that afternoon, 3-2. Andy Cole was sent off, Jamie Carragher put two through his own net, and throughout the noise was ferocious and unrelenting as the feverish crowd reacted to a match packed with incident but ultimately the only thing that history records with any solemnity is the score-line. It was a result that meant United were still unbeaten in a season where they were chasing a sixth league title since the Premier League began eight years earlier; a title they duly went on to secure. For Liverpool the loss left them flailing in 12th, and though they would eventually claw their way up to fourth it was to prove another disappointing campaign for a club long knocked off their perch.

Whether it took place at Old Trafford or Anfield, United would win these contests back then, pretty much all the time. The victory detailed above was followed by a corresponding fixture in Manchester six months later that ended in a draw and that lengthened United’s unbeaten spell against their arch foes to ten games. It remains the longest unbeaten run between the pair since the 1920s. From the Premier League’s founding to the dawn of a new millennium these two affirmed enemies clashed on 17 occasions across all competitions. Liverpool won only two of them.

It was an era that saw United turn up to Anfield as regal and assured as a prize-winning boxer who to their credit were prepared to take off their gloves and brawl in the dust for ninety minutes, emerging victorious each time due to their superior ability but always with a scratch or two and black eye.  It was an era that briefly saw this world renowned battle of the giants become almost one-sided.

It couldn’t last of course. That’s the thing with eras: they never do, and as the 2000s beckoned Gerard Houllier and Rafa Benitez to the Anfield dug-out, and an outstanding midfield trio of Macherano, Alonso and Gerrard formed behind a lethal Fernando Torres the gap began to close.

Granted there were no titles paraded around Merseyside, while an extremely successful regen at United heralded the emergence of Ronaldo and Rooney which only led to the continued hogging of yet more silverware, but pertaining to this fixture the needle swung back to centre ground. From 2000 to 2010 Liverpool won 11 of the 22 contests, a compendium of celebrated afternoons that includes a 4-1 spanking administered at Old Trafford.

Yet of most interest is the most recent decade; one that has seen United’s empire crumble while Liverpool’s star has risen once again, first under Brendan Rodgers and Suarez and co before being remodeled under Jurgen Klopp into the frankly intimidating creation that we are witnessing today.

In the last ten years – or at least since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement – United have floundered from crisis to crisis; losing their moorings to a trophy-laden past along with the winning mentality that facilitated it. They are a shell of who they once were. An echo from a failing voice.

It surprises then that they boast a better record than their rivals in this fixture from 2011 to the present day, with 11 wins to Liverpool’s six along with numerous draws in troubled seasons and this suggest a spirit is still there when most needed and called upon. In the fiery environs of enemy territory the muscle memory of yesteryear persists.

It is this learned and innate spirit that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer must tap into as the Manchester United coach heads down the M62 this Sunday to take on a clear favourite yet to lose in 2019/20. Perhaps the arrogant swagger has gone while the magnificence of Ferguson’s best teams certainly seem consigned to the past now. But Manchester United do not quiver under attack at Anfield, either off the pitch or on it.