THE ONE consolation Yossi Benayoun picked from the ruins of Liverpool’s proud home record on Monday was a belief that all the Premier League elite are susceptible to the likes of Aston Villa. It is still thoroughly disconcerting for the Israel captain, however, that only Rafael Benitez’s team have proven his point so far.

Three games is no time for dismissing Liverpool’s title credentials, though the results have not prevented some knees jerking, and already they have unwittingly encouraged the view that this season’s race will be no procession. The greater distribution of wealth by the established Premier League clubs this summer, with the leading four reluctant or unable to match past spending levels and more investment coming from the “second tier”, raises hopes not of an even playing field but at least some overdue uncertainty among the contenders before May.

Liverpool have stumbled as a consequence of their own failings and the calibre of opponent faced. Villa and Tottenham Hotspur, their recent conquerors, are among those whose net spending outweighs that at Anfield, Arsenal and Manchester United this summer, or will be in Villa’s case once Martin O’Neill has strengthened his defence with Stephen Warnock and perhaps Sylvain Distin.

Manchester City, obviously, and Sunderland make up that number. This is not to suggest a fundamental shift in power away from the Champions League regulars, or to overlook Burnley’s achievement in upsetting United, but it is the emerging threat from beneath the “Big Four” that now, perversely, consoles Anfield.

“I feel the Big Four will lose more points than expected because there are other teams that are much stronger this season,” said Benayoun. “Villa have proven they can beat anyone and I’m sure Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal will have tough games against the likes of Villa, Manchester City and Tottenham. Hopefully, at the end of the season, we will still be there.”

Such optimism does not blind the Liverpool midfielder to the weaknesses that Villa and Spurs have exposed in Benitez’s team.

The Liverpool manager refused to protect his stellar names when he gave a damning critique of Monday night’s performance.

It was telling the manager insisted Steven Gerrard was as culpable as the fall-guy Lucas for errors that undermined a display which, while flawed, still resulted in Villa’s goalkeeper Brad Friedel picking up the man-of-the-match award.

Benayoun admitted: “We didn’t play like we can play, we didn’t move the ball like we did against Stoke. We missed our chances and we conceded two goals from set-pieces. The second goal was a major blow. Losing 1-0 half-time you think you can get back, but 2-0 right on half-time put everyone down a little bit. We played a bit better in the second half, but everything went wrong for us.”

The end of a 31-game unbeaten league run at Anfield raised further questions over the quality of Liverpool’s alternatives should Gerrard or Fernando Torres endure an off night and with Alberto Aquilani, Xabi Alonso’s replacement, still over a month away from making his debut as he recovers from ankle surgery.

Benitez indicated in the aftermath of Villa that he does not expect any additions to his squad before next week’s deadline, even though Andriy Voronin’s and Ryan Babel’s sole contribution as substitutes was to advertise the need for a new forward.

Both Benitez and Benayoun, however, insist Liverpool have it within them to match the lofty expectations they carry this season.

“To lose two out of three is unusual for us. We lost only twice throughout the whole of the last Premier League season and we have to show that we are still a strong team,” the midfielder added.

“At a club like Liverpool, if you lose two or three games, then people will ask if we are strong enough to win the league. But there is still a long way to go, everything can change.

“If we go on a long winning run then people will start talking differently.

“I don’t think it is the senior players who need to come to the fore, it’s all of the players. We know what we need to do to improve.

“Maybe we cannot lose any more games until the end of the season, but we believe we are strong enough to be there at the end. We still think we can win the title. But it’s too early to speculate, we just need to look to get a run of winning games.

“We have a lot of good players here already, enough to win the league. Aquilani is still injured and can bring us a lot of good things. We have a very strong squad, and we don’t need to look at those kind of excuses after losing two games.”  - Guardian Service