Wasteful Liverpool spurn points in improbable draw

Two swings, many misses. Liverpool salvage a point at Manchester United but will know they left a victory on the Old Trafford pitch, as well as the lead in the title race.

- MIGUEL DELANEY

This almost farcical 2-2 draw ensured Jurgen Klopp’s side have fallen behind Arsenal on goal difference. The home crowd gleefully sang about the pressure getting to the German, but what was almost more remarkable was how his team wasted so many chances without any pressure at all.

United should have been beaten out of sight, having not even had a shot in the first half. It, of course, meant they were going to score with their first shot. Few could have imagined a shot like that which Bruno Fernandes produced. Kobbie Mainoo’s follow, to make it 2-1, surpassed even that. It also took the game to new levels of absurdity, as well as an element of narrative perfection to go with the accuracy of Mainoo’s shot.

That was just so in keeping with this error-prone, farcical game that it couldn’t quite end like that. There was another mistake in Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s foul, as Mohamed Salah at last just scored. That made for an oddly unsatisfying ending, certainly unlike the raucous recent FA Cup tie this seemed to directly pick up from. It was summed up in how players from both sides seemed disappointed at the end. Liverpool, however, will feel it most. The hope for everyone else is that this is just the start of an equally chaotic title race that twists and turns.

Liverpool now have to make sure they don’t look back on this first half as the period when it ultimately went away from them. They had been that dominant. It was that ridiculous.