One could look at the 2-2 draw at Villa Park in a variety of ways from a Liverpool perspective.
One side, the Reds had a lead and needlessly threw it away and were required to fight for a point when they were in a winning position. On the other hand, Liverpool were trailing away to a viable Top 4 contender and were able to secure what could be a big point.
As ever with this kind of thing, the answer probably falls somewhere in the middle. At the end of the day, a win was there for the taking, but a point away from home against one of the better sides is fine.
However, that does not mean we cannot take stock of this result on Wednesday to see what can be learned from the enthralling match.
1. Liverpool officially has a Darwin problem
I will go into this more in-depth at a later date, but the gist of this is all in this headline. It has not been a season of wonder or progress from Darwin Nunez.
He's had a few flashes but overall, it's been a lot of good effort for not a lot of reward. Up until now, that had been tolerable as the form of Mohamed Salah, Cody Gakpo and others have been able to hide this concerning development.
On Wednesday, Nunez came on as a substitute in a tie game against a willing opponent that was throwing bodies forward.
It was a perfect scenario for Arne Slot to introduce him. What followed; a shocking shank on a wide open goal, a missed square pass on another break, and truly awful indecision in the box leading to a goal kick was rough to watch.
He looks like a player well short on confidence, and until now, it had not hurt the side. He cost them points on Wednesday. There's a problem here.
2. The path to a Premier League title is not linear
It was folly to expect Liverpool to run away and hide with the league title this season. While it was obviously possible, so many things had to fall into place for this to be over by mid-April.
As it were, the Reds now have an eight-point lead having played a game more than Arsenal at the time of this writing. That could soon be five and from there, it's a full fight for the trophy.
However, the tough punches do not stop coming as next up is a date with Manchester City on Sunday. That is just one of several key Premier League fixtures left on the Reds' calendar before the season ends.
We are going to need all the lads firing on all cylinders down the stretch, because as we saw against Aston Villa, the margins are razor thin when it comes to winning titles.
There will be more frustrations and elation to come in this league journey, but you can bet the route forward will be anything but straightforward.
3. Dominik Szoboszlai has a big role to play
The Hungarian played very well against Villa as he was all over the pitch creating for others and himself in addition to his defensive efforts.
He should have had the winning assist as he put it on a platter for Darwin only to see the ball skied into the stands. In recent weeks, he has seemingly taken on more attacking duties which has allowed him to showcase his high-level ceiling as a player.
He can create a scoring chance from almost any situation and when you combine this with his typically high work-rate, that makes for a formidable player to handle for the opposition.
There will be matches down the stretch that sees clubs parking the bus against the Reds and they will need a player like Szoboszlai to unlock that defense with a moment of magic. He's becoming more consistent at that with each passing performance.
If Slot continues to trust him, he and Alexis Mac Allister could be the keys to keeping the Slot system functioning at an elite level.
His connection with Salah is already impressive, but if they can enhance that even more it might be too much for clubs to handle in key moments.