Jurgen Klopp admits his Liverpool players showed clear signs of being affected by their goalscoring problems as their Premier League title hopes were effectively extinguished.

The Reds were held to a 2-2 draw at West Ham United on Saturday afternoon to fall further behind in the battle with leaders Arsenal and champions Manchester City.

Andy Robertson and an Alphonse Areola own goal had cancelled out Jarrod Bowen’s first-half opener only for Michail Antonio to head an equaliser for the Hammers with 13 minutes remaining.

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Liverpool had wasted several decent chances in the first half and Klopp was unimpressed with the reaction of his team at opportunities being spurned.

“At half-time the one thing I didn’t like is how we dealt with the chances we missed, a bit of throwing arms and things like this,” said the Reds boss. “It makes no sense because it feels like we cannot constantly carry it with us that we didn’t score for a while or individuals didn’t score for a while.

“We just tried to ignore it for once, and coming out and scoring early (in the second half) helped obviously. Was still a really good game, super controlled, more intense now, caused West Ham massive problems.

“Intense spell for the boys, 10 games in four days and last one today. First half dominated, good game, not the highest intensity which happens quite frequently when you have these intense periods. You need to get the legs going.

“We created, were super dominant and conceded first anyway from a corner, not great.

“If there would have been a deserved winner today it could only have been Liverpool but football is not like that. Not always, at least. Here we are with one point which obviously isn’t enough for us but we can’t change that any more.”

With three games remaining, Liverpool stand in third place and still require four more points to make certain a top-four berth and Champions League qualification.

And asked if he thought the title was now beyond his team, Klopp said: “I don’t think about it really. I said before we need to win our games, we didn’t win the game and that doesn’t improve our situation massively. Do they (City and Arsenal) look like they will lose two or three games now? I don’t think so.

“I’m not angry or whatever. We have to win football games and let’s see what that means in the end. We have 75 points, so 84 are possible. It’s a good target to try to do that and that will be my attitude and my mindset and we will see what that means.

“It’s long ago that someone become champions with 84 points. I’m sorry I don’t have better news for you or anyone else.”