:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/47711437/GettyImages-150801480.0.jpg)
Two weeks is a long time in the world of football, doubly so after a disappointing loss right before the international break. Our reward for patiently waiting through a slate of mostly meaningless friendlies? A trip to Etihad Stadium to take on league-leading Manchester City.
Oh. Thanks for that, football gods.
New boss Jürgen Klopp takes his old, unbeaten record up against City, and is doing so with his trademarked optimism. In his pre-match presser, he had the following to say:
"I played [them] with Dortmund twice and never lost! I think eight players from that team are still there at the moment. They have high quality - but the best news is, it's football. So we have a chance."
By the sounds of it two weeks was every bit as long for Klopp as it was for the rest of us.
"I'm looking forward to the game. Two weeks is long enough after Crystal Palace. Now we have the next chance."
Another odd bit of news to come out of these comments revolved around the amount of players involved in the training sessions and the status of M.I.A. Jose Enrique.
"We had eight players here because Jose Enrique could train for the first time since I've been here. The other seven were the same seven that were here [last time]. So nothing has changed. I heard we had more players here but it was not the truth, they were only a little bit earlier because some of them only had one game."
Klopp did not elaborate on why Enrique had been unavailable for training, or, presumably, how furious he was to find one of his players locked in a room with nothing but snacks, weights, and a PS4.