Liverpool the real benefactors from pulsating Anfield draw

FROM ANFIELD – After Liverpool and Manchester City had played out an engrossing, high-quality 1-1 draw on Sunday afternoon, much of the debate seemed to centre on who exactly this result most benefited.

Arsenal seemed like the obvious answer given that, with both sides dropping points at Anfield, they were handed control of the Premier League title race.

There was also a strong case for City, who weathered a second-half storm at a stadium they have rarely enjoyed visiting to stay just a point off the summit going into a period where they habitually show their best.

But the true answer seemed to be revealed by the toothy grin that Jurgen Klopp could not wipe off his face as he whisked through his post-match media commitments.

The German’s happiness was no doubt partly down to the fact that his team had avoided a defeat that would have left them in the unenviable position of having to chase down both Arsenal and Manchester City across the next 10 games.

And a draw was perhaps more palatable than it might have been given that the Reds’ title rivals have to face each other at the Etihad Stadium in three weeks’ time.

However, in reality, Klopp’s joy actually owed more to the way his players had performed en route to claiming a share of the spoils, and that they had probably deserved more. After a largely even first half defined by a clever Manchester City set-piece, Liverpool simply found another gear to put on a remarkably dominant showing in the second.

For much of it, the world champions and treble holders were being taken apart, failing to contain a ceaseless barrage pressure that Pep Guardiola later likened to a “tsunami”. 

As for Klopp, he enthusiastically summed it up as: “On the scale I rate football games there is no higher scale than playing the best football you can play against Man City, causing City the problems we caused them today. 

“I was not here in the press conference but probably Pep saw it as well, that this was a different game to other games we played against them. Very often when we won it was counter-attack, quick-thinking, shots from distance. 

“How we played through the midfield today, that was some of the best moments of my coaching career, to be honest, that we are able to do that against them.”

The manager would later claim that his players had proven here that they are not just reliant on the grit that underpinned the