Liverpool 2, Manchester City 2: Neutrals win stalemate between clinical Reds and blunt Blues
As they caught their breath following this whirlwind contest at the top of the Premier League, Manchester City supporters could be forgiven for feeling conflicted.
Glass-half-full Blues will point to the fact that they twice came from behind at Liverpool, where they have won just three times in 49 league games.
Pessimistic City fans, on the other hand, will argue that a draw represented two points dropped based on their first-half superiority.
Neutrals, meanwhile, knew to just sit back and bask in another captivating collision between English football’s two most exciting sides.
City should be happy to have at least dragged themselves back into a match that threatened to slip away from them.
Having failed to make their supremacy in the first 45 minutes pay, they twice fell behind to goals conjured by Mohamed Salah, the first laid on for Sadio Mane.
But twice they responded quickly, Phil Foden capping his dazzling performance with a clinical finish across Alisson and, nine minutes from time, Kevin de Bruyne lashing home a loose ball via a deflection off Joel Matip.
It marked the end of a gruelling nine days in which they played away at both of their main title rivals, either side of a Champions League date with Lionel Messi and Paris Saint-Germain. To have taken four points seems like a very decent return.
And yet, and yet. City should so clearly have been scored in a goalless first half at Anfield that they dominated with increasing menace.
That may be no shame against Liverpool or taken in isolation, but the concern must be that a pattern is emerging.
At Chelsea, too, they controlled the play yet only breached their opponents once, with a deflected goal at that, and in Paris they did more than enough to score but lost 2-0.
Before this game, City had only scored twice in away league games this term. For all that they have smashed some times by five or six, in other matches they are clearly struggling to convert their possession and territory into goals.
Would it be any different with Harry Kane at centre-forward? Not necessarily on his current form, perhaps, but how they could do with someone around the penalty spot to convert their countless crosses and cut-backs.
Man City mesmerised by sensational Salah
Liverpool were clinical where City were wasteful, thanks largely to Salah, who appears to be back in the form of his life.
For the first goal on 59 minutes, Salah skipped past the otherwise excellent Joao Cancelo down the right and fed Mane to tuck first time past Ederson.
That trick proved just a taster for his own strike, however, in which he befuddled Bernardo Silva with a dragback and turned Aymeric Laporte inside out before flashing a shot into the far corner with his weaker right foot.
It was Salah’s ninth goal in as many games this season, the seventh consecutive fixture in which he has scored, and it was magnificent.
City had only conceded one league goal this season before visiting Anfield, and that was on the opening day at Tottenham Hotspur.
Liverpool, too, could count themselves unfortunate not to have won, given that they were within touching distance of all three points and a return to the top of the table.
They cannot really have complaints at sharing the spoils, however, and neither will neutrals.
A draw leaves the top three separated by two points and one goal in what is already shaping up to be a fascinating title race.
Each of Chelsea, Liverpool and City have their own different and very distinct style. More occasions like this are a delicious prospect.