ROUGH JUSTICE

There's nothing quite like a defeat to put us in the doldrums.
It's a strange one, but at 1-1 I was disappointed, but accepting of a point at a difficult away ground.
I say strange, because the British points system almost penalises a draw as much as a defeat.
You drop two points, or you drop three. There's only one point in it. But it's perhaps the psychological effect a loss transmits through the club.
Either way, it was a major downer on Saturday as we'd effectively taken Spurs to the cleaners with as professional a 70 minutes as you're likely to see in a long time.
Before it went horribly, horribly wrong.
Crossbar, crossbar, chance, chance...they were whistling past Gomez in that second half.
Unfortunately, they just weren't rippling the net.
It's an old and somewhat boring adage, but if you don't finish them off, they'll probably come back to haunt you.
And how.

Our first 45 minutes was a perfect example of how to strangle the life out of a talented, skilful side.
Mascherano was notable in his destructive miserly work. He must be a pain in the arse to play against.
In the second half we opened up and started to attack. Just ONE of those gilt-edged opportunities would have put the game beyond doubt.
At least two of them had a bit of fortune. Gerrard's ricocheted off a defender onto the bar.
Gomez then played harry-carry with a pathetic pass to his teammate and Gerrard's chip was sublime.
Just an inch too high.
Next, Kuyt was inches away and perhaps should have done better from Arbeloa's cross. And Alonso should definitely have done better with his header at the far post from a Gerrard free-kick.
Even so, it didn't look like Spurs would score. Mascherano was killing everything and the tenacity of Riera and Kuyt, amongst others, wasn't giving them a sniff.
After 70 minutes, they got a little bit of momentum, and suddenly it was 1-1.
There's not a great deal of blame to be laid at Carra's door for the own goal.
It was a wicked ball in, he was under immense pressure from King and he got himself in an arkward position.
Considering all the blocks and headed clearances he's put in, sometimes you have a bit of bad luck.
Their winner, however, was more concerning.
It was good play by Bentley to get the shot in, but I thought Dossena was poor allowing Bent to turn the ball back in.
It was imperative when the ball ran wide that no sort of cross should be allowed. The Italian didn't make himself big enough, Agger was caught on his heels. Game over.

As good as we played for two thirds of the match, it was slightly disappointing in the first half how we didn't press home our advantage against a demoralised Spurs side.
Our passing was slick and fast, but too often we'd advance well into Spurs' half through some clever passing triangles, only to undo all that good work, by ferrying the ball back again.
From a position of promise, balls were suddenly back at the feet of Agger and Carragher letting Spurs regroup.
Basically, we let them off the hook. One of our Achilles Heels is sitting back and holding onto what we've got after going one up, instead of continuing to play and sealing the game.
If Liverpool have enough mental strength, they won't allow this to get them down. Now Tottenham are starting to get themselves sorted out, they'll beat a lot of good sides at home this season.
We have some very winnable games coming up, West Brom, Bolton, Fulham, West Ham. It's time to go on a run. 12 points is almost a must.

Talking about individuals, Kuyt again played well and looked lively. His goal was a great strike.
Slowly but surely, we're getting the bustling all action striker that Rafa probably thought he was getting when we first bought him.
It did take a tiny deflection that took it slightly away from Gomez, but the shot would likely have found a way past him anyway.
Riera had a decent first half but faded. Alonso kept us playing and seemed up for a tackle which was good.
Keane, however, continues to worry. It was a nice spin and turn to set up Kuyt, but generally, it didn't really happen for him.
It was almost as if he didn't want to shoot. A couple of times he couldn't pull the trigger and chose to set up a teammate instead. It did cross my mind he might be loath to score against his old club.
I wonder if that was in Rafa's thinking too when he hauled him off....
Reina had a pannicky second half which was most unlike him. Maybe Gomez's mad cap antics rubbed off on him. But some of his forays from goal were alarming to say the least and not like the Reina of old.

We were bloody unlucky. End of story. But we can't cry too much as we've had the rub of the green so far this season. Man Utd own goal, the deflected winner at Chelski, few borderline red cards in our 3-2 wins.
The good fortune tends to even itself out in the end. There wasn't a great deal wrong with our performance, and against a rejuvenated Tottenham, we bossed them for 70 minutes.
I think even Man Utd, Chelsea and Aresnal will struggle to do that.