Rafael Benitez is absolutely certain that Liverpool should have been given a penalty by Howard Webb yesterday against Arsenal, when William Gallas clumsily up-ended Steven Gerard, and believes that, if it was given, it could have all been different.

“It was 100% a penalty,” said Benitez. “It doesn’t matter if the ball is going away in the box, if it’s a foul it’s a foul. It could have made a massive difference to the game.”

The Liverpool manager is adamant that once his team regains their fitness and confidence, they will start climbing back up the table.

“We were talking before with some players and we know the only way to reduce the gap is to win our games,” said Benitez “If you don’t win your games it doesn’t matter about the other teams.

“You concentrate on your own game.

“The target is the top four. Is five points difficult to make up? It’s the same situation. If we play as we did in the first half then we will win more games.”

“The fans and players are disappointed. We have to start working with them and try to do things in the right way. Some players are coming back and improving match fitness, and they have to keep doing the right things.

“The positive is the performance in the first half, the negative is the lack of confidence in the second half.

“We will train on Monday and try to show character and try to play like we did in the first half when we play Wigan.”

Yesterday’s defeat will have been a massive blow to the team’s confidence, but now with games against Wigan, Portsmouth and Wolves, they have a chance to restore confidence and bring all the players back to full fitness.