Charlton - 0 Liverpool - 3:Liverpool's season has sprung to life. Their scoring rate has increased and the defence is achieving clean sheets with the regularity of a Chinese laundry. They are about to meet Arsenal in each of the domestic cup competitions and Barcelona await in the Champions League. Meanwhile, Rafael Benitez's team are gathering points aplenty as they consolidate their place back in the Premiership's top four.
Just so long as Liverpool do not give suckers an even break, which is what nearly happened at The Valley on Saturday. Charlton were as bad as it gets and should have been beaten out of sight in the opening half-hour, having fallen behind to Xabi Alonso's penalty in the third minute. But, as the match reached the final 15 minutes, there was still only one goal in it and, with a fraction more composure, first Darren Ambrose then Darren Bent would have stood an absurdly one-sided contest on its head, which would have been even more ridiculous.
Slack Liverpool marking allowed each Charlton player time and space for a shot from close range and they were fortunate that Ambrose fired the ball over the bar before Bent dragged it wide of the far post. "We might have scored more goals, three or four perhaps, but we might also have conceded two," Benitez admitted.
Sometimes teams dominate a match to such an extent that they begin to assume goals will follow automatically. Certainly the ease with which Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt interpassed their way through the opposition's frail defence suggested that Charlton, having lost 5-1 at Tottenham a week earlier, would suffer a defeat of similar proportions. But while Kuyt's quick-witted, swift-footed partnership with Bellamy is adding another dimension to Liverpool's scoring potential, the Dutchman's tendency to snatch at chances saw him pass up one of the season's easier hat-tricks before he hit a post on the hour.
Bellamy was in his element. With Alonso bringing the save of the match from Thomas Myhre, the Charlton goalkeeper turning away the Spaniard's typically thunderous, swerving 40-yard shot, Liverpool indulged themselves at will when they were not playing at a walking pace.
Charlton began badly and got worse, and conceding a penalty so early is hardly a boost to the confidence. Alonso's penalty was followed by a siege, with Luke Young and Djimi Traore making goalline clearances, which was renewed after half-time.
Eventually the visitors put the result into a more accurate perspective. With eight minutes remaining Steve Finnan's ball from the right found Bellamy clear and Myhre was beaten by a superb cross shot. Then with two minutes left Peter Crouch nodded down Alonso's centre and Steven Gerrard had ample time to curl a fine effort into the top corner.
Guardian Service
