Manchester City showed the gulf between them and Liverpool on Sunday with an emphatic 4-1 victory at Anfield.

The win took them 10 points clear of the Reds with Jurgen Klopp’s side's title defence all but over.

Considering Liverpool won the title by 18 points last season, it’s a huge turnaround.

But should we really be too surprised?

Liverpool will point to injuries to their key players - most notably Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Diogo Jota. But City were without Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero.

The fact is, City have coped with absentees far better. It certainly helps with their squad being full of world-class talent - especially in a compressed campaign like this one.

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The citizens have been accused of splashing the cash in the Sheikh Mansour era and effectively ‘buying’ their success. And those with that school of thought won’t be surprised to see the latest report from CIES Football Observatory.

They have revealed the clubs who have had the biggest net spend in the last 10 transfer windows and City obviously come out on top.

City are the only club to have spent in excess of €1 billion since the summer of 2016 meaning they have a net spend of €631m. Their Manchester rivals, United, are in second with a net spend of €586m. Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Inter Milan make up the top five.

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So, where are Liverpool?

Well, they’re not even in the top 10. Everton and Aston Villa are.

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In fact, they’re not even in the top 20. Brighton (11th), Wolves (13th), Fulham (15th) and West Ham (17th) find themselves here.

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Even Sheffield United (21st) and Leicester (22nd) have a bigger net spend than Liverpool who are in 23rd place.

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The Premier League champions have spent €603m but earned €474m, meaning their net spend is just €129m. That puts them 14th in the Premier League’s list of net spend in the last 10 transfer windows.

Klopp actually spoke about spending money in the January transfer window as he appeared to question the owner’s decision not to spend money - particularly on a centre-back.

“Of course someone else is making the decision, it’s always like this,” he said.

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“I make recommendations but I cannot spend the money. That’s not how it is. That’s what I mean by ‘I don’t make these decisions’ – and I never did.”

The club eventually snapped up Ben Davies from Preston and Ozan Kabak on a loan with an option to buy. While those arrivals will help, they won’t be enough to win Liverpool the Premier League this season.

Failure to qualify for next season’s Champions League and Liverpool won’t be adding too much to their net spend. Instead, it’ll likely decrease with their big stars likely pushing for a move.