sport news Jarell Quansah's mistake to allow Bruno Fernandes to equalise carried echoes of ... trends now

When the final whistle went, Jarell Quansah, who had been one of the best players on the pitch and is one of the best young players in the country, put his head in his hands and then pulled his shirt as high over his face as he could make it go.

Bruno Fernandes, the Manchester United captain, noticed his demeanour and gave him a consoling pat on the back. Virgil van Dijk did the same. Liverpool had just blinked first in the title race and Quansah felt it was his fault. Football can be a brutal game like that.

It is true that Liverpool were coasting when Quansah made a mistake four minutes after half time and if fingers are to be pointed for their dropped points at Old Trafford, they could be pointed at those who missed a series of chances against Manchester United as much as they could be pointed at Quansah.

But his mistake was notable, partly because of how brilliantly Fernandes took advantage of it and partly because it carried some echoes of The Slip, the startling moment when a mistake by Steven Gerrard led to a Chelsea goal at Anfield that was a seminal moment in Liverpool’s doomed title challenge in 2014.

Liverpool were 1-0 up when Quansah got the ball inside his own half and played a pass towards Van Dijk. Except he had not seen Fernandes lurking. Fernandes read the pass and ran on to it and, in a flash, he had spotted Caomhin Kelleher off his line and chipped the ball over him from more than 40 yards out.

The goal changed the game. It brought United a measure of deliverance from a game in which they were being outclassed and brought them to within nine minutes of normal time of snatching a famous win after a magnificent second from Kobbie Mainoo.

But there is a twist here, too. Quansah did not fold. He did not crumble. He did not disappear or seek anonymity. He played with the kind of courage and indomitability that marks him out as one of the brightest prospects in the country. And he helped Liverpool rescue at least a point.

When the game seemed to have slipped away and all the points seemed to have been lost, it was Quansah who broke up a United counter-attack and evaded a couple of challenges before Harvey Elliott danced into the box and won the penalty that Mo Salah converted to bring the scores level at 2-2. This was not The Slip. This was what would have happened had Gerrard had a chance to redeem himself that afternoon at Anfield.

There is still too much to play for in the last seven games to say that this loss of two points against an ordinary United side will decide anything. But as Manchester City and Arsenal keep winning relentlessly, it was a setback. Liverpool are second to Arsenal on goal difference now but they are nothing if not resilient. They will come again.

When the game began, most people assumed United had a puncher’s chance at best. And most people assumed that that puncher would probably be Marcus Rashford. ‘United don't have world-class players throughout their squad,’ Gary Neville said. ‘But what they have in Marcus Rashford is someone who can deliver world-class moments.’

United started well. Alejandro Garnacho, who is in such a rich vein of form, thought he had scored when he burst on to a through ball and rounded Kelleher before slotting the ball home but the linesman raised his flag when the ball hit the net and replays confirmed Garnacho had strayed offside.

It did not take Liverpool long to hit their stride though. Salah played a brilliant ball with the outside of his left foot that put Dominik Szoboszlai in on goal and it took a fine left-handed save from Andre Onana to keep his shot out.