Two teams with little ambition in doing anything other than preserving what they started with yesterday reflected the slow death that is threatening to kill the Barclays Premiership.

Liverpool know that they cannot win the title and, with bigger fish to fry in Europe next month, merely seek to keep themselves ahead of Bolton Wanderers and in the top four. Aston Villa know that they should stay up and were satisfied with a point.

So the top two compete for the title, Arsenal and Liverpool have all but guaranteed another year’s worth of Champions League meal tickets and who would bet against the bottom three going down? Victories for three of the six teams starting the day below Villa have raised the possibility of a relegation fight. But don’t hold your breath.

Villa, who have 33 points, are in danger of accumulating their lowest number of points for a Premiership season — 42, last year — but they might still settle for a point a game for the rest of the season. They have mustered 13 points from their past 18 games, so that will have to pass for ambition for now.

There are fewer excuses for Liverpool, who failed to move up through the gears yesterday, notwithstanding their superior quality. But this is the monster the Premiership has become: technically adept but, all too often, sterile.

It was a day for pondering the wider questions of modern-day football: once competition is killed, sport is dead. Pleasing on the eye, sometimes, but with nothing to stir the soul. There was a contentious penalty decision that went against Villa, when Stiliyan Petrov was fouled by Steve Finnan in first-half stoppage time, but other than that, nothing.

The first half was of interest only to tactical geeks. Not even the teams’ supporters could rouse themselves. With Liverpool having lost their previous two games, against Manchester United and Barcelona, they were probably happy with a point. Selecting Javier Mascherano instead of Xabi Alonso alongside Mohamed Sissoko suggested as much.

As for Villa, beaten at home 1-0 by Arsenal on Wednesday, O’Neill reverted to the 4-3-3 formation with which he started the season, with Gabriel Agbonlahor and Ashley Young supplying the width in attack either side of John Carew. But as early nerves denied them a flying start, they dropped ever deeper, until the England Under21 wingers were playing as if in support of their own full backs.

It was as if Villa were the away team and yet Liverpool were far from their best. In the first half, they resorted to an early high ball over the top for Craig Bellamy to hare after, hardly the most sophisticated of game plans, while the introduction of Jermaine Pennant, booed for his Birmingham City connections, led to a last-minute chance for Robbie Fowler, another substitute, whose header was superbly saved by Thomas Sorensen. Patrik Berger, getting closer to Carew in his 14 minutes as a substitute than Petrov did, flashed two drives just off target, but a goal would have been a shock.

Villa are seven points above the relegation zone. “Since we were beaten by Arsenal on Wednesday and playing Liverpool, I suppose we might have settled for a draw beforehand,” Martin O’Neill, the manager, said. “But not in the fashion we played. It turned out more like a chess game than an entertaining match.”

Steven Gerrard left the pitch with an injury near the end, but the England midfield player said: “I got a kick on the shin, but it’s fine.”