Don't panic! Liverpool can win the title despite Villa setback, says Benayoun

26 August 2009 03:36
According to the statistics, there is no need for Liverpool to panic just yet. A look at the history of the Premier League shows that a team can often afford to lose as many as five or six games and still prevail at the end of the season. Statistics, though, can sometimes tell you only half of the story and it is the evidence of another inert Liverpool display against Aston Villa on Tuesday that will perhaps have most worried those who had wondered if this could be the year for their club. Liverpool have lost two of their opening three league games. Against Tottenham on opening day they were moderate. Against Villa on Monday they were dreadful.  Despite a domination of possession and a high number of efforts on goal, Rafael Benitez's side did not deserve to win and in losing 3-1 last season's second-placed team did nothing to dissaude those who fear they have lost a little something since running champions Manchester United close last season. In the crowd at Anfield on Monday - placed just two seats apart - sat friends and golfing partners Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish. The last time Liverpool lost their opening game and still won the league - back in 1982 - these two giants were in the team. Heaven knows what they would have made of the presence of players like Emiliano Insua, Ryan Babel and the hapless Brazilian Lucas back in their day. Lack of progress: Lucas In 1982, possession of the ball was everything at Anfield. On Monday, it ran through Liverpool's fingers like sand on Formby beach. Afterwards, Benitez was typically defiant self. What other stance can a manager effect when faced with such a dismal start to the season? His players, meanwhile, did their best to mirror his optimism. Full-back Glen Johnson said: 'It's only the third game and there's a long way to go. The likes of Villa and Tottenham can take points off everyone this season, and the good thing about the Premier League is that anyone can beat anyone. Teams are going to drop points. 'It's an early part of the season so we aren't going to beat ourselves up about what's going on at the moment. We just need to keep cracking on.' Certainly results from the start of this league season would appear to suggest that the traditional top four may come under a stronger challenge this time. United have lost at Burnley, Chelsea struggled to overcome Hull at home on opening day and even the multi-talented and expensively assembled Manchester City have had to work hard for opening wins against Blackburn and Wolves. When looking at Liverpool, though, the mind is taken back to something Sir Alex Ferguson said during pre-season when the United manager suggested that his club's great north-west rivals could struggle to better last year's tally of 86 points. Certainly, it was a huge total of points to amass without lifting the trophy. On many other recent occasions, it would have been more than enough. One wonders just what effect that has had on Liverpool psychologically and the impact it could yet have when set against the background of the departure of Xabi Alonso and the continued lack of progress made by the likes of Lucas, Babel, Andriy Voronin and Yossi Benayoun.  Paying the penalty: Ashley Young condemns Liverpool to defeat Benayoun said: 'We still think we can win the title. Maybe we can not lose any more games until the end of the season, but we believe we are strong enough to be there at the end. 'We lost only twice through the whole of the last Premier League season, and we have to show that we are still a strong team. 'At a club like Liverpool, if you lose two or three games then people will ask if we are strong enough to win the league. But there is still a long way to go, everything can change. 'If we go on a long winning run then people will start talking differently. I don't think it's the senior players who need to come to the fore, it's all of the players. We know what we need to do to improve.  'We have a lot of good players here already, enough to win the league. We don't need to look at those kind of excuses after losing two games. 'Because there are other teams that are stronger, I feel the big four will lose more points than expected. 'Villa have proved they can beat anyone, and I'm sure Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal will have tough games against the likes of Villa, Manchester City and Tottenham.' Liverpool move on to Bolton this weekend. Captain Steven Gerrard must recover from one of his worst games of recent times while Fernando Torres already looks like he has been playing for two or three months. Coach Benitez doesn't have many options if he wishes to shake things up and doesn't seem to trust the ones he has. Babel, for example, was given 15 minutes on Monday. The statistics tell us that Liverpool can still have a big say in the league season ahead. Common sense, on the other hand, encourages caution.

Source: Daily_Mail