IN the wake of the announcement of chief executive Rick Parry’s impending departure on Friday, Rafael Benitez insisted it would be business at usual. He wasn’t wrong.

By following a desperate home draw with a great away win in Europe and a dreadful defeat in the Premier League, it was most certainly a typical week for Liverpool.

The Riverside Stadium extended its inexorable hold over the Anfield outfit to effectively leave them once again seeking refuge in the Champions League to ensure a season of such great promise doesn’t end in yet more disappointment.

Anyone requiring more evidence as to why the title is heading for Old Trafford and not the other end of the East Lancs Road need only have been in attendance on Saturday.

All the old failings were there. The limitations of the squad, the failure to overcome opponents of lesser ability, the struggle to make early supremacy count and, having created chance after chance, the rank ineptitude when it came to actually putting the ball in the net.

From the high of victory in the Bernabeu to the crushing low of defeat against a team haunted by relegation fears and without a league goal for more than eight hours. Ecstasy followed less than 72 hours later by embarrassment.

This was by far the lowest point of Liverpool’s season. Middlesbrough, possibly the most ordinary side they have faced, hadn’t won in the top-flight for 14 games, yet their margin of victory could conceivably have been more. Benitez’s side ended up making the Teessiders look good.

But it isn’t because of this loss, only Liverpool’s second league setback of the campaign, that the wait for the title is almost certain to be extended to an alarming 20 years.

The depths of despair felt among the Anfield throng that trudged away after last week’s 1-1 draw with Manchester City suggested everyone knew the Holy Grail had already slipped away with a succession of dropped home points.

That said, there was no excuse for the way in which a disheartened and dishevelled Liverpool shamefully wilted in the final quarter on Saturday. Wasn’t there a championship to go for?

Now, instead of looking to close within a point of United with victory over Sunderland tomorrow night, the only domestic interest for Benitez’s side is an unnecessary scrap for a top-three place and automatic qualification to next season’s Champions League.

And with Chelsea rediscovering the winning touch under temporary coach Guus Hiddink, Liverpool are in danger of surrendering a runners-up spot that was seemingly nailed three weeks ago.

It could be argued Liverpool have done remarkably well to maintain a title challenge with Spanish striker Fernando Torres having spent so long on the sidelines this season.