Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp warned his side the Premier League title is not won yet after a 44-game run without defeat in the league came to a crashing end as Watford beat the European champions 3-0 on Saturday.
Klopp's men still enjoy a 22-point lead at the top of the table, but their sluggish return from a two-week winter break earlier this month was finally punished.
Ismaila Sarr's quickfire double and Troy Deeney's strike 18 minutes from time ended Liverpool's hopes of romping to a first league title in 30 years with an unbeaten season.
"What the boys did so far is exceptional but it is not over," said Klopp.
"We did not expect the number of games we won. It was never easy and it will never be easy, so now let's carry on."
After single-goal victories over struggling Norwich and West Ham either side of a Champions League defeat at Atletico Madrid, Liverpool were comprehensively beaten at Vicarage Road.
A 55-point gap separated the sides before kick-off, but the out-of-sorts visitors failed to muster even a single effort on goal in the first 45 minutes.
Watford's bright start threatened to be blown off course when Gerard Deulofeu had to stretchered off with a nasty looking knee injury that seems certain to end his season.
Andy Robertson's driven effort finally forced Ben Foster into a save early in the second half, but just as Liverpool were beginning to build up a head of steam, they were stung by two quick strikes by Sarr.
Firstly, the Senegalese beat Robertson to Abdoulaye Doucoure's low cross to stab home at the near post.
Six minutes later, Sarr had too much pace for a flat-footed Liverpool defence as he raced onto Deeney's through ball and showed fantastic composure to lift the ball over the advancing Alisson Becker.
Sarr also had a big part to play in Watford's third as he pounced on a short passback and had the vision to pick out Deeney, who lofted the ball nonchalantly over Alisson to make it 3-0.
"It's not acceptable we lose 3-0 here," said Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk. "We want to strike back straight away."
WOLVES COMEBACK
Raul Jimenez boosted Wolves' bid to qualify for the Champions League as his late winner capped the visitors' dramatic fightback in their 3-2 victory at Tottenham on Sunday.
Nuno Espirito Santo's side trailed twice in north London, but hit back from 2-1 down thanks to second half goals from Diogo Jota and Jimenez.
Wolves moved two points above Tottenham into sixth place in the Premier League.
As it stands, finishing fifth could lead to a Champions League place, owing to second placed Manchester City's European ban, against which they are appealing.
Sitting level on points with fifth placed Manchester United and just three behind fourth placed Chelsea, Wolves are firmly in the hunt for an unexpected berth in Europe's elite club competition.
They fell behind to Steven Bergwijn's first half opener, but Matt Doherty equalised and even Serge Aurier restoring Tottenham's lead couldn't knock Wolves out of their stride.
It was a bitter blow for injury-hit Tottenham, who suffered three consecutive defeats in all competitions for the first time this season.
Elsewhere at Goodison Park, Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti was sent off after approaching the referee as yet more VAR controversy contributed to a fiery finish in a 1-1 draw with Manchester United.
Goalkeeping errors by both United's David De Gea and Everton's Jordan Pickford were central to the outcome.
But Everton thought they had won the game in stoppage time when a shot from Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who had opened the scoring, deflected off United's Harry Maguire and into the net.
The goal, however, was ruled out by the video assistant referee with the offside Gylfi Sigurdsson, lying in the path of De Gea, deemed to have obstructed the view of the keeper.