We certainly missed Xabi Alonso, his vision and execution of passing a ball, coupled with his rekindled love affair with the Liverpool faithful, has really seen him emerge back at the top of his game.

Despite all the negatives, Liverpool started and finished strongly.

But in between we gave Stoke too much encouragement and to be fair they played to their strengths, which are basically keeping 11 men behind the ball, and trying to snatch a goal from a Delap throw-in.

Anyway, the fact is that we are still four points clear at the top of the Premier League and despite dropping four points to a pub side the title is still very much within our grasp.

Now on to the small matter of the derbies.

A win on Monday would totally eclipse any memory of the 90 minutes against Stoke and, let’s face it, the game is easy to forget.

The league win is vital and given the choice I’m guessing most Liverpool fans would take it ahead of a cup win.

But Rafa can’t afford to be fussy, he has to gun for every piece of silverware this season, as surely a third consecutive trophy-less season wouldn’t be welcomed at the club.

Obviously Benitez is going to make changes ahead of the FA Cup tie, but if he plays a severely weakened side and we were to go out of the competition there would be uproar among the supporters.

Our squad isn’t strong enough in the vital areas where we can have the luxury of resting players in big games.

But whichever you look at it the next two games are going to be difficult.

After all, Everton are playing two cup finals in a week – that surely makes them hot favourites for the 2009 Sports Personality Team of the Year.