If this year's championship race is a classic contest such as few can remember, with five teams in contention, the lead changing almost daily and the run-in scheduled to last from January to May, it does not necessarily follow that every meeting between the top clubs will be the cracker that it might look on paper.

"Each game is a cup game for every team that wants to fight for the title," Arsene Wenger said last night, after watching Arsenal and Liverpool engage in the sort of battle that showed the best of neither side.

Wenger felt his team had lost two points. Phil Thompson, his opposite number, believed Liverpool could have nicked it. In the end, the scoreline gave an accurate picture of a hectic but often sterile tussle.

Before the match kicked off, both men knew Manchester United had gone to the top of the table for the first time this season, the seventh team to assume the lead since August.

"It's not surprising to me," Wenger said. "I was one of those who told you not to write them off. Now I tell you that they have not won the title yet. They too will drop points, don't worry."

Arsenal are only two points behind United, and have a game in hand. Liverpool, by contrast, have frittered away an even better position. When Freddy Ljungberg eventually put Arsenal in front yesterday, repeating his successes against the Merseysiders in the FA Cup final in the spring and in the league meeting at Anfield three weeks ago, the decline seemed set to continue.

"Has Ljungberg got something against us?" Thompson asked. "Is he an Evertonian in disguise?" But the acting manager was able to take a great deal of comfort from the way his players bounced back to construct a brilliant equaliser within five minutes, thanks to John Arne Riise's 70-yard run and Steven Gerrard's instant pass from deep inside the Liverpool half.

"We had to show our commitment today," Thompson said, reflecting on his players' response to last Wednesday's flaccid defeat at Southampton. "I wouldn't say it was the greatest game ever played between Liverpool and Arsenal, but once Arsenal get a sniff of you, they can really go for it. So I was pleased with the way we consolidated."

Like Wenger, Thompson was keep to emphasise that he had never for a moment discounted the challenge from Old Trafford.

"When Alex said they had no chance, his tongue was in his cheek," he said. "We had a very good spell and rocketed up the table, but it' s difficult to keep that sort of momentum going. I've no doubt they'll have a blip again, but he'll be ready for it. It'll ebb and flow all the way to the end of the season."