Sunderland worked magnificently hard to gain another 0-0 draw in consecutive weekends against a mediocre Liverpool side.

Sunderland approached this game a lot more differently than they have approached their last two against Man City and Chelsea. They were dominating the possession stats in the first 30 minutes having 59% possession.

The chances were limited in the early proceedings as neither side really had any clear chances to score. Rickie Lambert and Philippe Coutinho both put their chances wide of the goal as Liverpool started slowly again, just as they did in midweek against Leceister and last weekend at home against Stoke.

Connor Wickham felt that he should have had a penalty, after a long, powerful run into the the Liverpool penalty area was put to a halt as he fell to the ground looking for a penalty under no contact from any Liverpool player. The referee rightly waved away the appeals from Sunderland.

Both teams went into half-time after a quiet half with very little chances created, with both sides having zero shots on target. This was very reminiscent of the first half against Stoke last Saturday at Anfield, a tedious first-half with the score at 0-0.

Sunderland came flying out of the blocks in the second half, dominating much of the play in the opening 10 minutes. Again, Sunderland were having multiple attempts, however none of them were coming close to troubling Simon Mignolet as they were all off target.

Liverpool looked to increase the intensity of their play, and managed to register the first shot on target in the 65th minute of the game. However, Brenden Rodgers' side were still struggling to create chances and looked to their captain - Steven Gerrard - who came off the bench at Anfield for the second Saturday in a row.

Minutes later, Liverpool had one of the better chances of the game. Rickie Lambert headed down a floated cross to the edge of the area, where Coutinho met the ball with a powerful half-volley only to be blocked exceptionally by midfielder Liam Bridcutt.

Coutinho could have put Liverpool ahead again in what would have been a brilliant goal. Raheem Sterling went on a skillful run starting from inside his own half, beating 5 Sunderland players and eventually laying the ball off to Coutinho, who was denied by goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon.

Both teams were going for the victory, as Mignolet was forced into a save soon after Coutinho's chance.

There was a quick tempo in the game now with Liverpool attacking ruthlessly, which led to the second penalty appeal of the game, as Sterling went on another fantastic run, weaving in and out of players but looked to be brought down in the area. Whereas, upon review on the replay it looked like Sterling went down a little too easily.

Liverpool were getting desperate and it almost got even worse as Gerrard's sloppy pass fell to Wickham, who looked to drive at the Liverpool defence but Gerrard managed to get back and win the ball off fellow Englishman Wickham.

Sunderland saw out the pressure from Liverpool to earn their 9th draw of the season in a very dull game between the two sides.

Liverpool (0) Sunderland (0)
Mignolet 6 Pantilimon 7
Johnson 6 Vergini 6
Skrtel 7 O'Shea 8
Touré 7 Brown 7
Moreno 6 Réveillere 7
Lucas 8 Larsson 6
Henderson 6 Bridcutt 7
Lallana 6 Johnson 6
Sterling 7 Gómez 7
Coutinho 6 Wickham 6
Lambert 6 Altidore 6
Remplaçants
Gerrard 6 Buckley 5
Markovic 5 Álvarez 6
Cattermole 5