The weakness that has undermined Liverpool's championship aspirations for the last decade - an inability to break down teams carrying a packed and determined defence - loomed again at Anfield yesterday to inflict damage on their current campaign. It was back to the dog days of frustration.
Faced by a Birmingham City side who made no secret of their destructive intent and who allied it with a prodigious work-rate, Liverpool simply failed to deliver the win they needed to keep pace with the leaders Arsenal. This was their third draw in eight.
Independent on Sunday
The most lethal attack in the Premier League, responsible for 11 goals in the opening four games, was frustrated for the second successive game and suddenly some familiar anxieties are beginning to afflict Liverpool.
Vastly superior to their brave opponents for almost the entire game, Rafa Benitez's team failed to secure the win their control merited through their failure to manufacture more clear-cut opportunities and flagrant profligacy when they did.
Sunday Times
The tedium was so numbing the Kop was reduced to rigid silence. Some goalless draws are better than the scoreline suggests, but this wasn't one of them.
Birmingham and their supporters were content enough, and those in blue celebrated this relative triumph with unbridled relish.
Their team had stood in numbers and defiance before Liverpool's much-vaunted array of international players and were never particularly stretched or reduced to desperate measures.
Liverpool probed patiently initially, doubtless satisfied their superiority would eventually tell. By the end anxiety had gripped them and stripped away that composure.
Sunday Telegraph