English FA Premiership/ Liverpool 3 Tottenham 0: Jermaine Jenas was the first Tottenham Hotspur player to trudge from the dressing room and blink sheepishly in the afternoon sunshine, but if he had hoped to slip away unnoticed from this latest defeat his cover was quickly blown.

"Eh, mate, how did you miss that?" rasped the steward on the gate. "It was a bad miss, that, you know." Jenas could only wince; as a statement of the obvious, this was excruciating.

It may be too soon to argue that Spurs' season is unravelling but for a side with aspirations to crack open the top four they are floundering where they had hoped to flourish.

Their six Premiership games have yielded four defeats and a miserable tally of two goals. The Londoners had also suffered their fourth league defeat of last season in this arena but that had come in mid-January; a little over five weeks into the new campaign, much of last term's momentum has drained already.

Theirs has been a fate similar to Everton's last year, when the heights of a fourth-place finishand a place in the Champions League qualifying round were followed by seven defeats and one goal from their first eight league matches.

"It's easy to say we haven't had the rub of the green and that little things aren't going for us, but we've got to score some goals and win some games," said Danny Murphy. "We've got to do better. There's no point hiding behind excuses."

The hard-luck story on Saturday centred on Jenas. With Liverpool spluttering, the visitors scrambled a corner upfield and Steve Finnan's miscontrol presented Jermain Defoe with possession. The striker sent the substitute Edgar Davids striding down the flank while Jenas sprinted through the centre, reaching the Dutchman's centre after it had fizzed beyond Jose Reina, only to prod the loose ball wide of the far post. The goal had gaped, and Davids sank to the turf in disbelief. Jenas had deserved more for his energetic 80-yard burst, but nothing for his finish.

There was an inevitability to Spurs' afternoon from then on in. Within 30 seconds Steven Gerrard had seared inside the jittery Benoit Assou-Ekotto and centred for Craig Bellamy - equally culpable of a staggering miss - to side-foot on to a post, and Mark Gonzalez speared in the rebound.

Defoe and Robbie Keane did not muster a chance between them, their supply line limited in the absence of Aaron Lennon and the selection of a timid Teemu Tainio. Jenas's own delivery was wretched, leaving Murphy's clever passing their only coherent route to goal.

Spurs may have been tidy throughout, with Ledley King and Michael Dawson outstanding, but they were powder puff. King's first-half miss, failing to make contact from Murphy's free-kick, was comical, and Martin Jol's assessment - "What can I say? It wasn't our day" - was just as flimsy.

The Dutchman had chosen not to attend Liverpool's midweek victory over Newcastle, presumably because he is all too aware of what the Merseysiders offer when Gerrard veers inside. Having attempted to sign Dirk Kuyt eight months ago from Feyenoord, he was also conscious of his compatriot's ability when afforded space.

Luis Garcia's flick enabled Kuyt, played onside by the hapless Assou-Ekotto, to belt his second Liverpool goal in four days beyond Paul Robinson, who left with head bowed after John Arne Riise capped the hosts' late superiority with a third from 40 yards.

Rafael Benitez's team can approach Wednesday's Champions League visit of Galatasaray with confidence. "Liverpool can achieve anything," added Murphy, who had been sold in the early cull after the Spaniard's appointment. "It's more difficult if they change the team a lot because if you don't play your best players you don't always get the best results. The manager does it more than most, but you can't argue with what he's done in the last two years.

"But the new lad up front looked different class and if Stevie (Gerrard) stays fit and strong they've always got a chance. He's the one who can make things happen. There was a 10-minute spell in the second half when we couldn't get near him and that can make the difference. But they're back on course."

Spurs must follow suit.

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