Liverpool 2-2 Manchester City match report: The Sunday Mirror verdict

If you believed Rafa Benitez and Mark Hughes, their sides are both still on course for a top-four finish.

Don’t believe the hype.

Despite the stellar names on show, the thrills and spills of an enthralling second half and a point apiece that will satisfy both men, this was a day when the flaws of both Liverpool and City were brutally exposed.

The home side lost Glen Johnson in a pre-match fitness test before Daniel Agger (below right) and Ryan Babel both went off with head and ankle injuries inside 20 minutes.

But after showing remarkable endeavour to go ahead through Martin Skrtel just after half-time, Liverpool allowed City to hit back with goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Stephen Ireland.

Despite manager Benitez’s valid complaint that his hands have been bound by an injury crisis, there is no excuse when a Slovakia centre-half like Skrtel allows Adebayor to drift away from him to head home Craig Bellamy’s 68th-minute corner.

When substitute Sotirios Kyrgiakos then allowed himself to be tied in knots by Shaun Wright-Phillips and left powerless to prevent the City winger setting up Ireland for a second in the 76th minute, it provided more evidence that this is going to be a tough winter for the Kop.

To their credit, Liverpool were behind for just 29 seconds before substitute Yossi Benayoun belied his own lack of fitness to grab an equaliser.

Benitez said: “You are never happy when you draw a home game – and at the end we were the team looking to win– but the players gave me everything.”

But character and commitment only go so far. Liverpool have now failed to win in a five-game period that has seen them falter in the title race, knocked out of the League Cup and on the brink of a Champions League exit.

City’s statistics are just as worrying. The Blues may still have only lost once this season, but six successive draws have given manager Hughes plenty to ponder.

When the visitors should have been looking to put their boot down on the throat of a Liverpool team in early disarray, they lacked the invention and determination to do so.

Adebayor looked as disinterested as his last days at Arsenal, Wright-Phillips and Ireland seemed scared to go beyond the halfway line, and Wayne Bridge struggled once again to do the dirty work that should come naturally for an England left-back.

Only Shay Given’s stunning save to keep out Skrtel’s early header kept the scoreline level in a mistake-ridden first half.

When Skrtel once again poked at City’s soft set-piece underbelly two minutes into the second half, this time he was able to guide home Steven Gerrard’s free-kick.

But Hughes’s introduction of Carlos Tevez for the lethargic Gareth Barry transformed City. Adebayor drew them level with a textbook header aided by Skrtel’s woeful marking, before Ireland threw off his shackles to guide home a cross by the revitalised Wright-Phillips.

But City have thrown away leads against Fulham and Burnley in their run of stalemates – and they did the same again.

Substitute Nedum Onuoha’s miscued clearance fell to David Ngog and when his poor attempt at a shot came off Joleon Lescott, Benayoun reacted first to score.

Hughes said: “It shows you how far this team has come that we have players who are disappointed to have drawn at Anfield.

“I thought we deserved to win because we were the better team, but again we have let a winning position slip.”