Liverpool are top of the league, but that statement will have a hollow ring this morning, after Rafael Benítez’s players wasted an opportunity last night to put down a marker in the title race by opening a three-point gap on Chelsea as December begins.

The silver lining is that Benítez would almost certainly have bought this position had it been offered him at the start of the season. The cloud is that Liverpool looked edgy, rattled by the opportunity presented to them by Chelsea’s home defeat by Arsenal the previous day. If there is tension in the air now, what will it be like here if Liverpool are forced to fight to the last month, perhaps the last game of the season, as happened to Manchester United and Chelsea last season?

One imagines Sir Alex Ferguson heckling them in the belligerent fashion of Jack Nicholson’s colonel in the film A Few Good Men: “You want the title? You can’t handle the title.” Come May, it will be 19 years since a championship was won by Liverpool and that is a lot of yearning to overcome. West Ham United were never the sort of team likely to win here — they last managed that in 1963 — but even a game plan that did not advance much beyond defending like madmen and hitting Liverpool on the break still fashioned the best chance of the game, when Craig Bellamy hit the inside of a post with a shot from 25 yards. The metallic “ting” as it connected echoed around an eerily silent Anfield, like the ricochet of an assassin’s bullet. Not a lethal one, fortunately for Liverpool.

Maybe going a goal down was what the home side needed to focus their minds on the job immediately at hand, and not some glittering prize so far out of reach. Serious questions about their title credentials have been raised by this result. Certainly, Liverpool have a history of slipping up on occasions when they should have won comfortably. Only three points have now been taken from home matches with Stoke City, Fulham and West Ham, the equivalent of losing two of those matches. Considering recent results by Arsenal, Chelsea’s sudden nosedive and United’s early inconsistency, this is shaping up as the title no team wants to win.

As the final whistle sounded, the home supporters booed. They quickly checked and made amends with a chanted reminder of which team were top of the league, but quite probably the instant reaction summed up their true feelings. They did more than enough to win here, creating ample chances but without the necessary conviction to convert them. In the end, West Ham were worthy of a draw for their determination to hold out, and the effervescence of Bellamy, who turned in a fine performance against his former club. In this game, at least, Liverpool missed him.

They miss Fernando Torres, too, but they should not in matches like this, and have not until now. Liverpool beat United and Chelsea without him. Robbie Keane, Dirk Kuyt, Steven Gerrard, Yossi Benayoun, Albert Riera and even the late substitute, Ryan Babel, should possess more than enough creative talent to see off West Ham.

They were denied, principally, by another display of brilliance from Robert Green in West Ham’s goal, with Matthew Upson and James Collins, the central defenders, not far behind, but there was poor finishing and panic on occasions from Liverpool, too. Miskicks, overhit passes and wasted chances were the order of the day, the home crowd alternating between groans and long periods of silence.

Before the game, a friend, a fervent Anfield regular, had predicted that with so much to gain from Chelsea’s weekend defeat, expectation levels would be high, and the tension painful if Liverpool did not score an early goal. He predicted a form of dread setting in after 20 minutes. He underestimated the faithful, but only by ten minutes.

It was almost exactly on the half-hour that an eerie silence descended on Anfield, and before long the anxiety resembled the sitcom depictions of maternity ward waiting rooms, all ashen-faced males, living on their nerves, pacing, biting their nails, jumping up in expectation, slumping back in their chairs as the anguish resumed. Liverpool are not set up to overwhelm teams with wave after wave of attacking play, like Manchester United or Chelsea at their best, and for all their superiority, the best chances came from set-pieces, frequently when the ball was in the air.

West Ham cleared two first-half shots off the line, first through Collins after Riera had instantly returned Green’s attempt to punch clear a cross by Benayoun, then from Carlton Cole, who kept out a header by Sami Hyypia.

As the game wore on, it was increasingly down to Green to repel Liverpool. In the 42nd minute, a corner from Xabi Alonso was headed by Kuyt at the far post, forcing a brilliant save, but his best came after half-time, when a poor clearance that fell to Benayoun was hit smartly towards the top corner only for the goalkeeper to divert it over the bar with his fingertips. Finally, in the 88th minute, Green stood tall against Kuyt, one on one, saving bravely with his feet to cap a stunning display.

The final minutes were playing out in an ecstasy of willing from supporters of both sides, but it was the visitors from East London who got their way, Gianfranco Zola’s side holding out for an unexpected point.

Did West Ham offer anything beyond defensive resistance? Only through Bellamy, either as potential goalscorer or creator. In the 66th minute, his corner was headed inches wide of the near post by the previously anonymous Cole, meaning only one striker on the Anfield pitch never had a sniff of scoring. Robbie Keane’s woe continues and he was withdrawn with 24 minutes remaining.

Liverpool (4-4-1-1): J M Reina — Á Arbeloa, J Carragher, S Hyypia, A Dossena — Y Benayoun, S Gerrard, X Alonso, A Riera (sub: R Babel, 78min) — D Kuyt — R Keane (sub: D Ngog, 66). Substitutes not used: D Cavalieri, D Agger, J Mascherano, Lucas Leiva, E Insúa. Booked: Alonso.

West Ham United (4-4-2): R Green — L Neill, J Collins, M Upson, H Ilunga — J Faubert (sub: L Boa Morte, 86), S Parker, H Mullins, V Behrami — C Bellamy, C Cole. Substitutes not used: M Noble, J Lastuvka, D Tristán, C Davenport, J Collison, D Di Michele. Booked: Mullins.

Referee: P Walton.

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Liverpool have thrown their weight behind the campaign to free Michael Shields, the supporter jailed under controversial circumstances. Shields, 22, is serving a ten-year sentence in a British jail for an alleged attack on a barman in Bulgaria on the night of Liverpool’s Champions League final triumph over AC Milan in Istanbul in 2005. Originally imprisoned in Bulgaria, he is being held at HMP Haverigg in Cumbria. A judicial review is to be held at the High Court in London on Thursday. Sue Johnston, the Liverpudlian actress, addressed the crowd before kick-off last night flanked by Shields’s parents, while fans in the Kop held up a mosaic appealing for his release. A man has confessed to the attack, which left a barman with a fractured skull. Shields claims that he was asleep at the time of the assault.