Manchester City and Liverpool's rivalry lacks "nastiness", says Roy Keane, with the ex-Manchester United star clamouring for the two to deliver more "pizza stories" in the vein of his former side's bitter feud with Arsenal.
Jurgen Klopp's Reds turned over the Premier League champions in Saturday's FA Cup semi-final, mere days after a high-octane 2-2 draw in the top-flight kept Pep Guardiola's Citizens on course to defend their title.
With a potential Champions League final date also looming after both sides made the last four, their rivalry looks set to only flourish further - but while Keane has great respect for both teams, he wishes that they had the bite to truly live up to a great battle.
What did Keane say?
"The game has changed, and I think the standards they’ve set are amazing, fantastic," Keane told fellow pundit Jamie Carragher on LADbible TV's Agree to Disagree. "But you’d still like a bit more nastiness between the two.
"That was part of the game that I loved when I played against Arsenal, when Liverpool were having their challenges. I’d like a bit more needle between these two. Whatever the standard of football, and we can’t speak highly enough of these two teams, I’d like a bit more.
"People look back [at] United and Arsenal – a couple of sending-offs, fights in the tunnel, pizzas. We want to hear some pizza stories! It’s too nice, isn’t it?"
What does Keane mean by 'pizza stories'?
Keane's culinary remarks make reference to his involvement in the infamous Pizzagate incident that occurred in the 2004-05 Premier League season, when United defeated Arsenal 2-0 to end Arsene Wenger's Invincibles era.
Red Devils boss Sir Alex Ferguson allegedly had a slice of pizza thrown at him by a Gunners player in the aftermath, while tensions continued to boil over between the two sides and their managers over multiple subsequent seasons.
Though Ferguson and Wenger have famously reconnected in their retirement, the two were reportedly not on speaking terms for several seasons, with the rivalry widely considered one of the most infamous in league history.