With the carrot of regaining their place at the top of the English Premier League dangling, Arsenal failed to grab onto that particular opportunity, with Robin Van Persie and Manchester United holding the home side to a goalless draw at the Emirates.
Liverpool are now within a mere three points of second-placed Arsenal, and four points adrift of leaders Chelsea, after the Reds came from behind twice to edge bottom side Fulham 3-2.
Manchester City will have to wait to take their chance to go back to the summit of the Premier League, after their game at the Etihad against relegation-threatened Sunderland was postponed due to bad weather.
Quite a few of the big games this season have been tense and turgid affairs, and that proved to be the case again with neither Manchester United nor Arsenal able to provide that extra glitz to turn the match into a man-that-is-some-good-90-minutes-of-action-right-there.
United pressed the Arsenal players from the top of the pitch, trying to negate the home side from building from the back. Van Persie, looking for yet another dagger to twist into his former team, came close on a couple of occasions early on, with Arsenal unable to find that irresistible gear.
After a rather tight 60 minutes or so, Arsenal nearly broke the deadlock via Laurent Koscielny, who saw his header cleared off the line by Antonio Valencia.
But then United thought they had won it, and that too through Van Persie, whose header seemed to be destined for the back of the net only for Wojciech Szczesny to make a fantastic save onto the post.
The draw does not do United too many favours either, with David Moyes' men now 11 points behind fourth-placed Liverpool, who had skipper Steven Gerrard to thank for scoring the winner from the penalty spot in the 90th minute.
Kolo Toure's rather forgettable phase with the Reds continued with the former Arsenal and Manchester City defender finding his own net in the eighth minute to give Fulham an early 1-0 lead. Daniel Sturridge levelled the scores for the away side at Craven Cottage just before halftime, only for Kieran Richardson to give Fulham the lead yet again three minutes after the hour.
However, this Liverpool side showed they are championship material, with Philippe Coutinho equalising on 72 minutes, before Gerrard fired home a penalty after the referee adjudged Sascha Riether to have brought down Daniel Sturridge inside the box.
Elsewhere, Emmanuel Adebayor's impressive form showed no signs of relenting with the Tottenham striker netting a brace in a 4-0 thumping of Newcastle, with Paulinho and Nacer Chadli scoring the other two goals.
Everton's home game against Crystal Palace also had to be postponed, while Stoke City and Swansea played out a 1-1 draw.
