Sturridge and Stevie leave City feeling blue

For the second time in the space of a week, Liverpool failed to garner the points their performance deserved against a top team, as Manchester City fought back to claim a 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday afternoon. After Edin Dzeko opened the scoring, Daniel Sturridge controversially equalised as the Bosnian feigned injury. In the second half, Steven Gerrard's superb strike appeared good enough to win the match for the visitors, but Aguero's brilliance, matched with Reina's stupidity, meant the spoils were frustratingly shared.

After blaming the youngsters in his squad for the Reds' exit from the FA Cup, boss Brendan Rodgers opted to start with an experienced line-up against the Premier League champions. The average age of the starting eleven was 28, with 22-year old Jordan Henderson the youngest member of the team.

Liverpool were in the ascendancy during a tentative start to the match. Reina may have had to tip Silva's 20-yard volley over the bar soon after kick-off, but the Merseysiders enjoyed the majority of possession and their front line threatened City's usually robust defence, which was inevitably weakened by the absence of club captain Vincent Kompany.

After 13 minutes, Johnson lofted the ball over City's defence to Sturridge, who proceeded to promisingly round goalkeeper Joe Hart but was frustratingly denied by crucial intervention from Zabaleta at the last moment. Sturridge then eased past the hosts' defence far too comfortably for Roberto Mancini's liking, setting up the perfectly positioned Luis Suarez, who uncharacteristically skewed his shot well wide.

Man City took the lead against the run of play just past the halfway stage of the first period. The ordinarily imperious Daniel Agger was to blame, as he first played Dzeko onside and then failed to prevent Milner's low, left wing cross reaching the tall 26-year old, who completed the simple task of turning home from close range.

Ironically, the pair were at the centre of attention for the second goal soon after as well, though neither found the net. Agger arguably fouled Dzeko, but referee Anthony Taylor waved play on, telling Liverpool's players not to kick the ball out. They obeyed this instruction and went on to witness former Manchester City striker Daniel Sturridge smash home from 25 yards out to level the scoreline.

Sturridge keeps calm after scoring the equaliser

Sturridge did well to not celebrate his fourth goal in half a dozen matches, as he surely must have been tempted to celebrate considering the barrage of abuse aimed at him from the stands. For his part, Dzeko justified Liverpool's decision to play on and revealed his playacting as, immediately after Sturridge's shot had hit the back of the net, he was miraculously healed and instantly ran over to the sideline to hurl abuse at the linesman, an offence for which he rightly received a booking.

On the stroke of half time, City almost hit the self-destruct button, as a horrible mix-up almost handed Liverpool the lead. Zabaleta's poor back pass was completely misread by Hart and the keeper watched on helplessly as the ball rolled past him. He must have breathed a massive sigh of relief when the ball trickled behind for a corner. Had it rolled over the line, the pair would have become stars of every blooper video for the next 50 years.

There wasn't any lasting relief for the home side, though, as they continued to struggle to cope with their opponents' tenacity, application and desire during the second half. Downing headed and shot wide, while Suarez's curled effort just missed the target as the Reds dominated, with Sturridge's yellow card for going down theatrically in the box after minimal contact from Lescott the only thing detracting from the visitors' display.

As reward for their effort, Liverpool took the lead with 17 minutes remaining with a fantastic strike from Steven Gerrard that was worthy of winning any game. Clichy cleared to the Reds' captain, who controlled with his chest before smashing a 30-yard drive past Hart and into the corner of the net with immaculate accuracy.

Captain fantastic justifies his nickname with a wonder goal

Reina and Aguero display contrasting emotions

Irritatingly, Liverpool's tendency to throw away leads and fail to see out matches against the top teams became evident again only five minutes later, as Reina's embarrassing error allowed Aguero to net a sensational equaliser for the title contenders. A long ball played forward posed little danger until Reina ridiculously decided to rush out and try and claim it, leaving his goal completely exposed. Aguero cleverly beat the Spaniard to the ball and produced an outstanding finish from an extraordinarily tight angle.

Both teams had chances to clinch all three points, Johnson's shot and Maicon's header missing the target, but ultimately they had to settle for a draw that does neither side much good. The draw leaves City nine points behind runaway leaders Manchester United, while the Reds face an uphill struggle to qualify for the Champions League because they are the same number of points adrift of fourth placed Tottenham Hotspur, who are breathing down the necks of London rivals Chelsea after their one-goal victory at West Bromich Albion yesterday.

Nonetheless, Liverpool can be more pleased with a point, which they probably would have taken before kick-off. Yes, considering the way the game panned out, it is frustrating not to claim all three points, but their performances against both Arsenal and Manchester City are evidence of progress from Brendan Rodgers' side. This nasty habit of failing to kill off opponents needs to quickly end, but the reasons for optimism at Anfield abound at the moment.

For the first time in a while, Kopites can definitively say things are heading in the right direction.

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Dominated them just like we did Arsenal. Two points thrown away but we are going in the right direction. - Mark Halfpenny

We should have beaten Man City twice. - Fishball Gerard 

YNWA