Liverpool Lose to Tottenham, Title Dream Over?

After the weeks of building anticipation and confidence, Liverpool fans were brought crashing back to Earth after Saturday’s defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. But despite all the negatives I’ve read since the defeat, I’m of the opinion that there are still positives to be taken from the game.

Despite the loss, Liverpool remain equal top of the league, and while we have lost our three point advantage over Chelsea, a defeat to a resurgent Tottenham is definitely not the end of the world. We are also, crucially, remain five points clear of Manchester United in our attempt to deny them a record equalling 18th title.

There had been talk amongst the media and in internet chat rooms over whether Liverpool would be able to go undefeated this season. Well, they won’t now, and that's something everyone involved at the club no longer has to worry about. We are also not league leaders, and won’t have every other team having that desire to knock the leaders off their perch.

Additionally, we can take comfort in the fact that it was Tottenham we lost too, a defeat to either Manchester United or Chelsea would have been far more detrimental to our chances this season. The fact that it was Tottenham, who despite their claims at the start of the season aren’t going to be challenging Liverpool for a top four spot, let alone the league, means we don’t have a "six" point disadvantage to turn around.

It's also worth noting that we've come through a reasonably difficult period of games, and only drawn and lost one respectively. Whilst these games may have been easy on paper, and been made harder for ourselves, Liverpool have continued to pick up points.

All this has happened at a time when we've had to cope with international breaks, qualification from the Champion’s League group stages to ensure, and the absence of Fernando Torres.

Torres will be back. Despite Rafa's insistence that we could win without him, (which we have largely done) and that we had the quality to replace him in the starting line up, there is no getting over the fact that Liverpool have missed Fernando Torres a great deal. We only lost to Tottenham because we failed to take our chances and lacked that incisive edge. 

With Torres back in light training during the week leading up to the game, I personally thought there was a chance that he would be named on the bench. He didn't appear, but it’s reported he will be fit for at least the bench for this week’s Champion’s League game, and I’m expecting him to start next weekend. 

Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, some will probably claim I’m clutching at straws, but our challenge is definitely not over. One bad result does not mean the end of a successful season.

Luck has been with us, and may have been against us on Saturday, those are the breaks, and it means virtually nothing. Of far greater concern to me is how we bounce back this weekend against West Bromwich Albion.

We all saw how Chelsea responded to last weekend’s defeat with convincing displays against Hull and Sunderland; we need to do the same this weekend at Anfield. With Torres expected back, and Gerrard starting to find form, there's every chance we can get a convincing result to restore any loss of confidence the players or the fans may have had following Saturday’s game.