Coming off a season where both the eventual Premier League champions and the runners up were very nearly perfect, you could be forgiven for assuming the eight-point lead Liverpool enjoyed over Manchester City coming into this past weekend to have been almost insurmountable. When the margins separating the league’s only true title contenders are so narrow, and the opportunities to make up ground so infrequent, Man City’s early stumbles could conceivably have been seen as fatal. But by dropping points for the first time all year this weekend away at Manchester United, Liverpool slipped off their own perfect pace. In doing so, the Pool Boys demonstrated that this season’s race is bound to be less perfect and more forgiving than the last one, which should set us up for yet another photo-finish ending. That Manchester United were the ones to finally knock Liverpool off balance was something of a surprise. United have been their typical good-but-not-good-enough post-Fergie selves this season, in stark contrast to Liverpool, who had won all eight of their EPL matches and sat on that huge lead in the table. Even at home against their biggest rivals, it was easy to pencil the Red Devils in for…