Liverpool’s demise has been caused by costly home draws with Stoke City, Fulham, West Ham and Hull, as well as away draws at Stoke and Wigan.

Benayoun said: “We put up a good performance at West Ham, but to score quickly took a lot of pressure off us. But it will still be difficult now to win the title. Manchester United are top and still have a game in hand, regardless of how well we play on Saturday.

“They have proved themselves over the years and are a very strong side.

“But we still hope they will slip up, although it could be all over by the weekend if they win their next two games with us not playing again until Sunday.

“If they do win their games they will deserve to be champions, but hopefully there will still be a chance left for us.”

He added: “We know that we did our best right to the end, our current run of wins has been impressive.

“But we will know where we let ourselves down during the season. We lost too many points against teams below us in the table at home.

“The period before Christmas and around the end of February was when we drew a lot of games. We lost too many points then.”