One slip. That’s all it took. One misstep separated these teams. Joao Cancelo failed to trap a long kick from Alisson and, suddenly, what promised to be the greatest goalless draw the Premier League had witnessed wasn’t that at all.

By the end the noise inside Anfield was deafening, Jurgen Klopp had been sent off for raging at a linesman over a foul on Mo Salah not given, and six minutes of injury time were signalled that took the frantic mood up a notch further. The gap at the top, meanwhile, stood at four points. 

The greatest beneficiaries here were Arsenal. Not that you would have known it. Mo Salah’s goal with 15 minutes remaining took the roof off the place, rocked it to the rafters. That new stand must have very sturdy foundations, or it might have fallen down.

Mohamed Salah celebrates after scoring the only goal of the game against Manchester City on Sunday evening 

It was brilliant, quick thinking by goalkeeper Allison, the sort of high tempo idea that had defined Liverpool all afternoon. He saw Salah one on one against Cancelo. He gave the Manchester City man a test, and he failed it. Cancelo is usually exemplary but Salah spooked him. He stepped forward to kill the ball, failed and Salah spun him. Now he was away, only Ederson to beat. He finished in style, his first league goal since August – although he scored a hat-trick in the Champions League against Rangers as recently as Wednesday. It is too early to say Liverpool are back – they put nine past Bournemouth and still didn’t turn a corner – but this was a fabulous return to form. They rocked City, the old way. The energy was off the dial.

The tension, too. City thought they had scored through Phil Foden after 53 minutes but Anthony Taylor was rightly advised of a foul by Erling Haaland on Fabinho in the build-up. As Liverpool’s fans celebrated, Pep Guardiola made a great show of whipping them up, as Klopp does. The managers admire each other but, between these clubs, little love is lost.

It was Liverpool’s day. The best save of the game was made by Ederson in the 50th minute after Roberto Firmino put through Salah again. Ederson got a touch, but Taylor didn’t see it. As City scored their disallowed goal from the resulting erroneous goal-kick, Haaland’s foul was probably for the best.

Should Salah have been on the pitch. His number came up when Klopp made a clutch of substitutions two minutes before the goal but after the striker had stalked over to the sideline, face like thunder, he was given instructions and told to carry on. That 11 seemed an error, rather than a change of heart, but either way it was one of the happier U-turns of recent times.

At the other end, it wasn’t Haaland’s day. He snatched at his ferw chances, forced a good save from Alisson, but couldn’t be the difference. Guardiola was seen in smiling conversation with one striker at the end, but it was Salah. Klopp was back too, having been understandably dismissed for a snarling attack on a linesman who didn’t see a foul on Salah. It was a sorry end for Diogo Jota who, having missed a couple of good headed chances, sustained a nasty injury and was carried off on a stretcher amid the breathless conclusion.

Manchester City have always brought out the best in Liverpool, and this game was no different. It has been an inconsistent, frustrating season so far, blighted by injury and variable form. Yet faced with the challenge of a Pep Guardiola team, Jurgen Klopp and his players so often rise to the occasion.

So they started here like the Liverpool of old. Ferocious, furious, relentless, dangerous. The Liverpool blueprint that, at its best, has swept City off the park in previous meetings. This City are a different proposition, however, so while they appeared rattled at times, and under immense pressure, they did not crack. City got to half-time with the scores level. They threatened, sure, but they knew they were in a match. Guardiola is not ruling Liverpool out as title contenders, no matter how off the pace they appear looking at the league table.

Liverpool gave City a few hard knocks to welcome them to Anfield early, but the first shot came from Ilkay Gundogan, forcing a straightforward save from Alisson. It was not until the 32nd minute when something resembling a goalscoring opportunity for City presented itself, Erling Haaland through one on one, but seemingly caught in two minds between chipping Alisson and shooting at the target, and presenting him with another simple stop. It wasn’t Haaland’s half. In the 35th minute a lob from Kevin De Bruyne did not arrive with the requisite power to be moved on with force and travelled tamely over the bar. Better from De Bruyne five minutes later with the same target, but Haaland could only steer the ball in Alisson’s direction again.

At the other end, Liverpool could have done more. In the 21st minute, the excellent Harvey Elliott – looking entirely at home in this company – found Diogo Jota with a ball into the box that should have required more of Ederson in the City goal. Just three minutes later, a fabulous passing move involving Virgil van Dijk, James Milner, Roberto Firmino, Jota and Milner again, saw the right-back’s cross pushed out by Ederson, with Liverpool shirts massing. The ball came out to Andy Robertson who struck a shot with venom over the bar.

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