Liverpool were held to a poor 0-0 draw at home to West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League as Alan Pardew’s side climbed out of the relegation zone with a hard-fought point.
The Reds had scored 63 goals in 25 competitive games in 2017-18 heading into the Anfield clash but could not find a way through a stubborn Baggies backline, although substitute Dominic Solanke had a late strike ruled out for handball.
Mohamed Salah, who had been directly involved in 23 of those goals after his move from Roma, was particularly wasteful as Liverpool missed the chance to move up to fourth place and were instead overtaken by Tottenham, who beat Brighton and Hove Albion.
Wednesday’s draw means Liverpool now have seven draws and two defeats from their first 17 matches of this Premier League campaign and sit a massive 18 points adrift of runaway leaders Manchester City.
West Brom’s Hal Robson-Kanu went closest to scoring the opening goal in the first half, the Wales international unlucky to see his 30-yard dipping effort land on the top of the crossbar.
Salah and Sadio Mane missed fine opportunities to break the deadlock after the interval, but visiting goalkeeper Ben Foster was virtually untested despite Jurgen Klopp’s men dominating the ball.
And while Liverpool’s unbeaten run at Anfield now stands at 15 games in all competitions, this was their third straight top-flight draw at home and another two dropped points that could prove costly in the race for Champions League qualification.
In other Premier League results:
Claude Puel returned to haunt former club Southampton in the Premier League, as Leicester City ran riot to win 4-1 at St Mary’s Stadium.
Manchester City cruised past Swansea City 4-0 at the Liberty Stadium on Wednesday to set a new Premier League record of 15 consecutive wins.
Romelu Lukaku eased concerns about his goalscoring form with the winner as Manchester United bounced back from derby day disappointment by edging Bournemouth 1-0 at a sodden Old Trafford.
Arsenal dropped points for a third Premier League game in a row as they were held to a 0-0 draw at West Ham United in a wasteful showing.
Tottenham Hotspur took advantage of Liverpool and Arsenal dropping points to move into fourth place in the Premier League with a 2-0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion.