Nobody said winning the Premier League would be easy. And for any Liverpool supporters who expected their team to continue their serene progress towards the championship, this was as cold, sharp a shock as the weather that threatened this latest spat between the bitter North West rivals.

Come full-time, with the Manchester United end quietly jubilant, the Reds fans who braved the freezing elements were probably wishing the game hadn’t gone ahead after all.

There will always be bumps in the road during every title challenge, And the visit of United, no matter how parlous the position of the Old Trafford side, always carries its unique issues.

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But with Arsenal having dropped points at Brighton, there’s no doubt this 2-2 draw should be considered a missed opportunity to turn the screw on the Gunners and the rest of the contenders.

What will irk Arne Slot is that Liverpool, after another underwhelming first-half performance was followed by going behind to Lisandro Martinez’s hugely avoidable strike shortly after half-time, fought back to put themselves in a position to win the game through the latest superb Cody Gakpo strike and Mohamed Salah’s nerveless penalty.

With United spirited but limited opponents, that should have been that. But there was precious little sign of the control that has become a trademark of Slot’s team this season, unable to see the game out with the defence starting to look a little shaky and the midfield sorely missing the energy of the ill Dominik Szoboszlai.

Passes were hurried, tackles missed, players too easily dragged out of position. Cohesion was too often absent and there was never a sense the game had been won.

Indeed, after Amad Diallo was allowed to strike a leveller with 10 minutes remaining, United looked the more likely to score again although it was good fortune that give Harry Maguire the chance to score into an open goal that he instead sent into orbit.

That would have been far too much reward for the visitors. But it was difficult to deny they merited a point having successfully dragged Liverpool down to their level.

With the Reds’ next two Premier League games at in-form Nottingham Forest and Brentford, their resolve on the road will now be tested. Of the five games in which they have failed to take maximum points this season, three have been at Anfield.

Disappointing, yes. But these things happen in a title race. How Liverpool now respond will determine if this result should be regards as nothing but an annoying inconvenience.