A dramatic contest that finished in a stalemate and a result that was ultimately only beneficial to Manchester City.
Trent Alexander-Arnold buried his face in his hands as the final whistle blew at Anfield, knowing full well that his squandered chance with 15 minutes to go would keep him up at night.
Liverpool broke five-vs-two, and Mo Salah made the correct pass, but Alexander-Arnold chose to go high above David Raya rather than slide the ball past the keeper.
PHOTO : Salah celebrating his goal
Liverpool’s right-back stated after the game that he felt it struck a bump, but Klopp admitted: “With that chance, we should have won the game.”
“We were lucky not to concede a goal,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta conceded after the game when asked about the opportunity.
Martin Odegaard has previously denied Liverpool a penalty for handball. The decision by the watching VAR, David Coote, not to even send the referee to the monitor adds to the Premier League referee’s series of perplexing judgments.
Trent’s mistake and the non-penalty decision will be the primary talking points, but it was a high-quality Christmas meeting between the top two sides.
“One of the best Liverpool sides I have seen,” praised Arteta, who remarked on an “unbelievable game of football”.
For Liverpool, though, two home games and two draws means four points dropped at a time when they could have moved further ahead of Man City.
Instead, City arrive back from their Club World Cup trip to Saudi Arabia only five points behind Klopp’s side and with a game in hand.
The Boxing Day round of games marks the season’s midway point. Liverpool would have claimed this place before the season started, but there’s a sense of what might have been if they hadn’t drawn more games (six) than any other team in the top eight.
Indeed, Liverpool has the equal most draws in the league, and those draws have previously cost the Reds dearly in championship battles.
