THERE are a hundred reasons why it would be foolish to write off Liverpool’s championship challenge. But they continue to demonstrate a few why it may not.
Such has been the schizophrenic start to the season that shows no signs of abating for Rafael Benitez and his players.
From being arguably the most consistently impressive side in the Premier League during the final months of the previous campaign, the Anfield outfit remain in search of a similar reliability.
Defeats to Tottenham Hotspur on the opening day and, more damagingly, at home to Aston Villa had given cause for much soul-searching around Melwood.
And while considerably less than perfect, Saturday’s hard-earned victory at Bolton Wanderers will at least bolster confidence and allay the critical vultures that have been hovering around the club ready to pick at what they believe is the carcass of Liverpool’s title challenge.
Steven Gerrard was one of several players to fall considerably short of their own high standards against Villa, the skipper urged by Benitez to rediscover the sparkle and help engender a response to their early-season woes.
Not for the first time, Gerrard delivered, although it required the sending-off of Sean Davis to give him and his team-mates the encouragement to eventually overpower a limited Bolton side.
Operating in a deeper central midfield role, Gerrard was effectively shadowed by Fabrice Muamba until the red card changed the landscape of the game and gave the Liverpool captain the freedom in which to spark a revival.
His 83rd-minute winner, thrashing in a volley from 15 yards after Glen Johnson’s cross was nodded down by Fernando Torres, was trademark both in timing and execution.
“It was a difficult first 45 because Muamba was like my shadow,” admits Gerrard. “I’m sure if I’d have gone the toilet in the first half he’d have followed me. But he wasn’t able to do that when they were down to 10.
“It’s always nice to score but you get the little bit more extra pleasure when you’ve been under pressure all week and you have had people sniping away trying to put the team down.”
With Torres having earlier dragged Liverpool level for a second time, it was the 100th goal the pair have scored between them since the Spaniard’s arrival two years ago.
Benitez’s side are more than a two-man team, but the fact is any success this season will be dependent on his star duo remaining fit and focused.
That said, Liverpool will also have to continue working on their defending from set-pieces if they are to have a hope of bagging any silverware, with all seven of the goals to beat Pepe Reina this season having come direct from a dead-ball situation.
Bolton, of course, are prime exponents of the set play, so the visitors would have known what to expect on Saturday. Yet that didn’t stop Gary Megson’s men twice capitalising on Liverpool’s significant shortcomings.
Kevin Davies, the eternal Trotters focal point, bundled the ball over the line after Liverpool failed to defend Mat Taylor’s 33rd-minute corner, and then beat debutant Sotirios Kyrgiakos to a deep Juusi Jaaskelainen free-kick and flicked the ball on for the incoming Tamir Cohen, son of former Liverpool defender Avi, to thrash home two minutes after the interval.
It was one of the few times Kyrgiakos was beaten in the air, although the centre-back could rightly wonder how Cohen was allowed to break free unmarked from a supposedly packed midfield.
