United steals a late point to stun Liverpool
Amad Diallo scored the equaliser as Manchester United fought back in a thrilling 2-2 draw with Premier League leader Liverpool at Anfield, with Ruben Amorim's under-fire side halting its three-game losing run.
Arsenal's 1-1 draw at Brighton on and Hove Albion gave Liverpool a chance to go eight points clear at the top of the table, but Arne Slot's hosts started slowly in freezing conditions and fell behind to Lisandro Martinez's second-half strike.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, who endured a miserable outing overall, saw a loose ball picked off by the Argentinean, who exchanged passes with Bruno Fernandes before powering home.
Cody Gakpo netted a brilliant equaliser just before the hour mark, then a Matthijs de Ligt handball allowed Mohamed Salah to put Liverpool ahead from the penalty spot in the 70th minute.
However, there was to be another twist as Diallo, the hero of United's 2-1 win at Manchester City last month, tucked home with 10 minutes to play.
United could even have snatched the victory deep into stoppage-time, but Harry Maguire somehow fired over the crossbar when presented with a golden chance.
The draw lifts Amorim's side to 13th on the table, leapfrogging West Ham United, while Liverpool is six points clear of second-placed Arsenal with a game in hand.
But United coach Amorim wasn't as happy as one might think at the end of the match, calling on his players to show the same passion in every match it plays.
Asked if United were disappointed not to win the match, he said: "Yes, because the expectations were so much different than what we saw during the game.
"I think I get more mad because of the other games so it's even harder to understand some things.
"This is not about the system, it's not about the technique. It's about something else and this is hard to understand, even for the coach.
"I think it was a point deserved but it is just one point and I think we should get mad and disappointed, more than the other day against Newcastle [United], or Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest – more than those days, today we need to be really disappointed.
"If we play against Liverpool every day we will do that. So we have to do it against any opponent and understand that we have to fight really bad to get out of this situation.
"The way we were really competitive, that is the crucial thing going forward. I'm happy for the performance, not happy for the result but I'm really mad because of the other games."
Slot suggested Liverpool's struggles were predominantly down to the tactics of his United counterpart.
"We started really well. We had three open chances in the game and then there was a period of time which was more difficult for us," Slot said.
"It is difficult if you play against quality players that are playing in a low block, with only [Rasmus] Hojlund and [Amad] Diallo as the attackers.
"It's not always easy to find the gaps and that's what happened. Then being 1-0 down makes it even more difficult, but I was very happy with the mentality we showed afterwards going 2-1 up."
Slot, though, was keen to give credit to the visitors.
"They have quality with the ball and without the ball. They are difficult to play through. It was so open when they started to play. You can see more how good they are if they are trying to play," the Dutchman said.
"For the first 75 minutes, [Andre] Onana played the ball long and every free-kick they got, they just hit it forward. In the last 15 minutes, you could see if they play over the ground, how good they are.
"People forget all the chances we had. They had the open chance from [Harry] Maguire. We had many more chances than them but, in the end, we could have definitely lost it with the Maguire chance."
Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk echoed his manager's comments in playing down the home side's poor performance.
"It could have been a lot worse, if we are absolutely honest with ourselves. They had a big chance in the end and that could have been a lot worse than where we are now," he said.
"I'm definitely disappointed with dropping points at home, but it is what is and we have to move on and we will.
"We found the 2-1 and then it is about trying to manage the game and keeping the ball for longer than three and four passes.
"We lost the ball too easily at times and then we were more open than we should have been. We are not perfect, we are still learning and we have to learn from this as well."
Van Dijk also rejected the notion that the Liverpool players had underestimated United, which was 14th on the table before the game.
"That's all the media – media talk. It's nothing to do with us," he said. "We prepared for a very tough game like we have seen today.
"We didn't think any of that. We look at the next game, we don't look at the league table."
