It hasn’t been a good month for those desperate to see Liverpool end their 29-year title wait.
Six games, four draws, eight points dropped, and a lead surrendered to rivals whose form seems to be going in the opposite direction – there haven’t been many positives to take of late.
It had all looked so promising on January 30, when Leicester City visited Anfield in the aftermath of a shock Manchester City defeat at Newcastle.
In beating the Reds at the Etihad Stadium earlier that month, Pep Guardiola’P team had moved back within four points of the summit.
But a slip-up at St James’ Park offered the pretenders to the crown the chance to once again go seven clear with victory over the out-of-sorts Foxes.
Then, the snow fell on Anfield, and the sky with it, and so even an early Sadio Mane opener was not enough to inspire the hosts to three points on an admittedly difficult pitch.
In isolation, a draw against a team with a strong recent history of overturning illustrious opposition did not represent a particularly poor result.
Unfortunately, it was quickly followed by another stalemate at West Ham in which the Reds failed to capitalise on the gift of an early offside Mane goal.
Referee Kevin Friend managed to attract Jurgen Klopp’s ire despite that decision, but an eventual £45,000 fine from the FA was perhaps the least concerning consequence of that evening as far as the German was concerned.
With just a three-point lead to show for their trip to east London, the Reds could only watch on as City retook the lead in the title race by beating Everton in a game brought forward due to their participation in the EFL Cup final.
Guardiola’s men may have owed their advantage to a fixture scheduling idiosyncrasy, but their return to top spot appeared to deal a psychological blow to Liverpool.
And, while that perhaps wasn’t evident as they brushed a famously generous Bournemouth aside three days later, it was fully on show as they stuttered to another goalless draw at Old Trafford the following weekend.