Jurgen Klopp's 1,000th match as a manager ended in a goalless draw as Liverpool and Chelsea could not be separated in their Premier League clash this afternoon.
The two teams both went into the contest hoping for a result to kickstart their season again, following poor respective runs of form which had left them level on points in ninth and 10th place respectively.
However, neither team could capitalise on the other's recent misery as they were forced to settle for a point apiece - a result which does little for either teams' top-four hopes, despite temporarily lifting Liverpool up a spot to eighth.
Indeed, Liverpool and Chelsea are both still nine points adrift of the final Champions League place, a gap which could grow further when Newcastle United take on Crystal Palace later on Saturday.
The closest either side came to a winner arrived after only three minutes when Chelsea thought they had a perfect start to the match as Kai Havertz stroked home a rebound after Thiago Silva's initial effort from a corner had come off the post.
However, a VAR review revealed that Havertz's foot was just ahead of the ball when Silva struck it, letting Liverpool off the hook by the narrowest of margins.
Klopp's men had a chance to make the most of that reprieve just three minutes later when Mohamed Salah laid the ball into the path of Cody Gakpo, only for the Dutchman to balloon his effort over the bar when he should have done better - one of a number of shooting opportunities he failed to take advantage of in search of his first Liverpool goal.
Thiago Alcantara and Salah also had sights of goal for the hosts in an underwhelming first half, but the biggest chance of the opening 45 minutes fell to Chelsea's Benoit Badiashile, who saw his header from Hakim Ziyech's free kick well saved by Alisson Becker.
With quality lacking on both sides in the first half, Liverpool came out of the blocks faster in the second, yet still struggled to truly test Kepa Arrizabalaga in the Chelsea goal.
The introduction of big-money new signing Mykhaylo Mudryk from the bench 10 minutes into the second half began to swing the game back towards Chelsea, while Ziyech also began to have a growing influence on the match.
Indeed, Ziyech came close to producing a spectacular solo effort on the hour mark, before Mudryk came up with an even better run as he showed dazzling footwork to beat James Milner and Joe Gomez inside the box only to fire his shot into the side-netting.
Mudryk squandered another big chance at the back post when he was picked out by a dangerous Ziyech delivery, but the Ukrainian's cameo provided some optimism for Chelsea from the contest.
Both sides had chances to win it late on, with Trent Alexander-Arnold firing off target when he should have done better and Andrew Robertson coming across to make a crucial last-ditch challenge to deny Carney Chukwuemeka inside the area.
However, ultimately neither side could provide any telling moments of quality in the final third, meaning that this fixture has now been drawn three times in a row in the league for the first time ever - in addition to goalless stalemates in both the EFL Cup and FA Cup finals last season.
The result means that Liverpool are still searching for their first league win of the calendar year, while Chelsea have only won one of their last five top-flight outings.
It was at least a rare clean sheet for Liverpool - their first in the league since October 19 - yet both sides could now end the weekend as much as 12 points off the top four. body check tags ::
