EPL Wrap: Liverpool must take positives from loss on a day of comebacks

London: Last season, Liverpool almost snatched a win at fortress Etihad in the league, with a team playing considerably less well than they currently are. This season, they lost 2-1 after taking a lead, though it was only in the final execution of skills that they were found wanting. The strategy, the confidence, the tempo, the passing – almost all aspects were right as they looked for the win against Manchester City that would preserve the top position they held at the start of Boxing Day.

At the very least, had any one of a number of things gone their way they would have become the first team this season to escape without defeat. Instead, a few close refereeing decisions went against them, Simon Mignolet made a terrible error to gift City their second goal just before half time, and the three best chances of the second half fell to players other than Luis Suarez.

So for them, it was a loss, and the harsh truth is they have momentarily lost ground on the other top teams. But in the fullness of time it should prove to be a galvanising loss, reinforcing their claims to a top four finish rather than endangering them, given that every other team to come to the Etihad has simply bowed down meekly and surrendered.

City knew they must have their wits about them when taking on Liverpool because Brendan Rodgers’ men are always happy to meet fire with fire. Their best players are their attacking ones so they seek to use that strength rather than restrict it, in the belief that they are more likely to beat a good side 4-3 than 1-0. Strategically, they are the polar opposite of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, Liverpool’s next opponents, who primarily aim for a clean sheet against teams they respect. It will be really interesting to see how that particular meeting pans out.

City are now within a point of Arsenal, and have reached a playing level where they are considered very strong favourites to win the league. But this was a performance that owed less to their electric forwards — one of their key ones, Sergio Aguero is currently injured — and a lot to their general organisation, plus the consistent brilliance of the captain Vincent Kompany.

His headed goal brought them level after Philippe Coutinho’s early strike for Liverpool and his commanding work on Luis Suarez forced the Uruguayan to drop ever deeper as the game went on — so it was not by accident that the really good chances created by Liverpool fell to others. Joe Hart, stung into action by being dropped by his manager for a while, made one fine save from Coutinho and two other decent ones.

City v Liverpool was the highlight of the day from a purely aesthetical viewpoint, but the comebacks launched by United and Arsenal would have been highly pleasing for their respective supporters.

United’s game at Hull had a particularly bizarre opening – they were 2-0 down after 13 minutes, and the home team’s manager at this point, Steve Bruce, was in dreamland against the club he had once played for because Hull have a good record of hanging onto leads at home this season. But it took a further 13 minutes for Wayne Rooney to manufacture one goal and score another, thus wiping out the deficit – and from then on it was the United of old as they remorselessly wore away at Hull’s resolve. United were far from perfect but there were good signs here for David Moyes in their determination to correct the early errors.

Arsenal made heavy weather against West Ham, one of the most out-of-form teams in the league. They were losing with 22 minutes to go, with the often hugely influential Aaron Ramsey having limped off with a potentially significant thigh injury. Ironically, the enforced change — Lukas Podolski coming on and moving out to the left wing to give Santi Cazorla a central position — freed up Arsenal’s creative expression. But this has not been an easy period for Arsenal and their next match is away at Newcastle, who have won seven of their last nine games in the league.