ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Liverpool 2 Wolves 0:RAFAEL BENITEZ resembled a witness to too many false dawns. An abundance of potential turning points were presented to the Liverpool manager on Saturday but, for the first time since this campaign listed dangerously, Anfield's loudest voice of optimism latched on to none. He had every right to reserve judgment on Liverpool's fortunes.
It was September when Benitez last oversaw back-to-back wins in the Premier League, when a fit Fernando Torres plundered five goals in victories over West Ham United and Hull City and doubts over the fragility of the Liverpool squad were buried beneath the surface. The three months of torment that have followed transformed the club’s outlook.
They head to Aston Villa tomorrow heartened by three points against Wolves, the latest belligerent response to the doubters from Steven Gerrard and the advantage of an added day’s rest over Martin O’Neill’s team. A genuine turning point presents itself at Villa Park.
“We know Aston Villa are in a very good position,” said Benitez, speaking before his next opponents’ 3-0 defeat at Arsenal. “They have belief and confidence but we must try to win and reduce the gap. If we can’t, we still know we have to keep going because it is a long race. We have been good in the second half in past seasons and we will have to be confident.”
Liverpool’s display against Mick McCarthy’s team forced Benitez to retain perspective. There was little invention or conviction to the home side until Stephen Ward’s dismissal undermined Wolves’ comfortable resistance.
Agitation was mounting inside Anfield before Gerrard tracked Emiliano Insua’s excellent cross from the left, reinvented himself as a latter-day John Toshack and launched a textbook centre-forward’s header into the Kop goal. The captain’s wild celebrations spoke of pressure released, the one-to-one chats with Benitez over his struggle for form since returning from injury finally paying dividends with his first goal in nine games.
The Liverpool manager said: “Hopefully that goal will prove important for us. To see Gerrard scoring goals and playing well means his confidence will be very high. He is someone who has scored 20, 22 or 23 goals a season, so he is used to scoring goals.”
Benitez’s mood was not only tempered by his team’s laboured display against 11 men. Both Torres and Alberto Aquilani, making his first league start in the absence of the suspended Javier Mascherano, are doubts to begin two matches in quick succession while Yossi Benayoun and Fabio Aurelio were withdrawn with slight injuries in the closing stages.
Benayoun spared Anfield anxiety with a second goal 20 minutes from time, collecting another inviting delivery from Insua before beating Marcus Hahnemann with the aid of a slight deflection off Karl Henry.
The manner of defeat left McCarthy smarting. His team selection, a stark contrast to the one at Old Trafford, showed he believed Wolves could add to Liverpool’s insecurity and that conviction appeared justified until Ward collected two bookings inside five minutes.
Liverpool’s reaction to Andre Marriner initially booking Christophe Berra by mistake – with the goalkeeper Jose Reina embarking on a needless sprint the length of the pitch as the referee took instruction from his assistants – was skin-crawling. “I am not sure it was a sending-off,” said McCarthy. “It wasn’t much of a contact.”
Asked if it amounted to an insult to field a full-strength team at Anfield but not Old Trafford, the Wolves manager had an emphatic final word. “Is this the face of a man who gives a flying f**k?” Charming.
- Guardian Service
