Arsenal coolly turn in performance of champions with Anfield looming as Man City and Liverpool falter

The performance of champions.

It's a phrase that gets thrown around with increasing frequency as a title race takes shape and the twists and turns start to jolt a little.

And, if we're being entirely honest, it can mean whatever you want it to.

The full-time whistle after the 90-minute dirge of Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United was greeted by the odd soundtrack of silence punctuated by grumbled murmuring at Anfield. It sounded more like a congregation leaving a funeral than one of the great occasions on the English football calendar.

Liverpool weren't very good. United aren't very good, and the expectation of something similar to last season's 7-0 mauling on Merseyside appeared to hinder Jurgen Klopp's side after they failed to secure an early breakthrough.

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The hosts did not create enough, badly lacked midfield rhythm without the injured Alexis Mac Allister and appeared to run out of ideas beyond Trent Alexander-Arnold's eloquent right boot.

But if someone had converted one of the England international's whipped crosses, Anfield would have been in raptures, Klopp would have gleefully launched into his post-match fist pump routine and all and sundry would have hailed the "performance of champions".

Gutsing out a win when you're not at your best. That's what champions do.

True enough, and it's notable that a Manchester City side chasing an unprecedented fourth successive Premier League crown are not doing that at the moment. Pep Guardiola's team have drawn their past three home games, twice on account of injury-time equalisers and having led all of them.

If those elements feel like a repeat of City's flakiness in both boxes during the 2019/20 season, when they last