Liverpool boss Arne Slot warned that his team cannot afford to keep dropping points after a horror miss from Darwin Nunez in a 2-2 draw at Aston Villa on Wednesday night.
Slot’s side passed up the chance to move 10 points clear at the Premier League summit after being held in an entertaining encounter at Villa Park.
Mohamed Salah continued his incredible season with a goal and an assist as he opened the scoring in the first half and then teed up Trent Alexander-Arnold’s second-half equaliser after Youri Tielemans and Ollie Watkins had turned the game around for Villa before the interval.
The three points were there for the taking for the visitors when Dominik Szoboszlai laid on a golden chance for Nunez, who blazed over an open goal at the far post, with Liverpool having to settle for their fourth draw in their last eight matches. The miss had echoes of Ronny Rosenthal’s famous howler for Liverpool in the same fixture in 1992.
Former Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler, who was working for TNT Sports, could not believe what he had seen. "It's a really bad miss, probably up there with one of the worst we've seen this year," he said.
Dutch coach Slot admitted he was "not happy", with closest challengers Arsenal now able to cut the gap to five points if they win their game in hand.
Slot said: “The only reason why we could be happy with a 2-2 was that they got the last chance of the game. OK, a point is good to take, but for the rest, I think all for everything else I’m not happy.
“So performance-wise, not a dip at all today, in my opinion. What we must not do, and we’ve done that a bit too often now, is that we don’t get what we deserve.
“And if you look at all the chances, you put them in a row from us and from them, I think it’s clear which team should have won this game, and we must not make a habit out of that.
“Because it happened a bit too much now, and still we are eight points clear with Arsenal, who have a game in hand.”
On Nunez’s miss, Slot added: “Szoboszlai made it an open goal chance and then Darwin was, of course, it was not his best leg, he’s right footed, of course, but it was still a big chance.
“I was hoping that he could have got another one, because a player like him probably wouldn’t miss two chances in a row.
“I think we were all disappointed, but it’s normal that a player that missed a chance like this is always a bit more disappointed than the rest.”
Villa showed they can be a match for any of the top sides on their day, but inconsistency means they seem unlikely to qualify for the Champions League through their league position for a second season running.
“We competed very well, but we are in the process, we want to get stronger in the Premier League, even playing against some teams who are better than us,” boss Unai Emery said.
“Liverpool is the best team in the Premier League and Champions League but we competed. We were close to get the victory, but I think the result was fair for both teams because they had chances, and we had chances at the end of the match.
“I have to accept it, this draw is adding one point in the table, not being enough, but we have to keep going, positively as well, improving with the players that joined us.”
