So this is Christmas, and the Premier League title race is far from done. Another year is almost over, but in terms of who will go on and lift the trophy at the end of the campaign, this battle has just begun. War, in English footballing terms, is far from over.
As Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool players sit down to presumably eat some kind of turkey pasta on Monday (pasta is what footballers still eat, right?), they will likely still be mulling over this missed opportunity to take a real grip of the title race. The Reds went into back-to-back home games, albeit against Manchester United and Arsenal, knowing that two wins would have put them at least two points clear of the chasing pack, and nine ahead of Manchester City. Instead, two draws in which they defended well but were awful in attack means they now sit second.
Instead, it is Arsenal who can claim to be the league's Christmas number one, and though they too will feel like their failure to win on Saturday is a missed opportunity, they at least know that Anfield can be crossed off for another season, with this a rare occasion where Mikel Arteta's squad didn't put in a performance on Merseyside that would have warranted a lump of coal in their collective stockings.
The 1-1 draw that Liverpool and Arsenal played out as Mohamed Salah cancelled out Gabriel Magalhaes' opener was, however, the perfect Christmas gift for the man who already has it all: Pep Guardiola. Despite the high winds caused by Storm Pia likely leading to some anxiety as he and the City squad boarded their flight back from Saudi Arabia, the Catalan coach will have afforded himself a smile when he saw this result. Santa brought him just what he wanted - now he and his team must make the most of this title-race reprieve.
GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from Anfield...
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