Starting with the Crystal Palace match, United had eight games before the turn of the year to make up ground on rivals in the coveted Champions League berths, with five of those matches on home turf against Arsenal, Fulham, Huddersfield and Bournemouth.
Unfortunately, Saturday's stalemate with Roy Hodgson's side has caused an early setback on the Reds' target of pushing for the upper echelons of the Premier League.
“We knew in the period we had coming up, there were so many home games that three points had to be a must. A point or no points? It might as well have been a loss,” said Smalling.