Liverpool - 1 Southampton - 0: Michael Owen returned to Liverpool yesterday and, numbed in the stands, he watched as - not for the first time this season - his former team-mates laboured in his absence.
A one-dimensional Southampton side may have been dismissed by the only goal, but this was anything but convincing.
The worry nagging at the hosts is that Chelsea, resplendent at the top, visit this arena on New Year's Day. The leaders will match the Saints' stinginess at the back, but will offer appreciably more to hurt Liverpool than Rory Delap's hurled throws into the six-yard box did here.
And Rafael Benitez can ill afford a repeat of the sloppiness that crept into his team's display if their recent revival is to be maintained.
That resurgence now amounts to three successive wins, a first under the Spaniard, though no one at Anfield appears carried away. "We need more than three wins in a row," said club captain Steven Gerrard, whose own performance had lapsed before frustration coaxed him towards something approaching his best late on. "That's what Liverpool's about, going on long runs, not just three games on the bounce."
This latest victory was secured by a goal plucked from the dregs of a desperate first half, conjured by the only flash of brilliance worthy of this stage.
Dexter Blackstock surrendered possession miserably in the centre, but Xabi Alonso's pass - slipped inside full back Martin Cranie - was delicious. Florent Sinama-Pongolle had battered an earlier chance from a similar position into the side-netting, but was more composed now, sliding his shot beyond Antti Niemi.
This should have prompted an avalanche, but Liverpool stuttered thereafter. Owen will have recognised the warning signs from last season - possession frittered away too easily, nerves setting in to provide an edgy finale - though John-Arne Riise, freed by a wonderful Gerrard pass, pummelled a shot against the bar from an improbable angle.
Benitez, who will consider re-signing centre half Mauricio Pellegrino next month after he was freed by Valencia, admitted: "We were bad in the second half. It was as if we were thinking of the Portsmouth game and were a little afraid."
That match - two weeks ago - had seen Harry Redknapp's former side plucking a point in stoppage-time, though his new charges never boasted the required bite to equalise.
James Beattie's absence benefited Liverpool, as did Kevin Phillips' presence on the bench until beyond the hour.
And, without their first-choice strikers Southampton could do little to capitalise on Salif Diao's hapless display as a makeshift right back.
Yet the visitors were still awkward opponents, Niemi denying Neil Mellor and Luis Garcia. Redknapp took heart from their refusal to roll over. "I was well pleased with the effort; that was encouraging."
LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Finnan (Diao 29), Hyypia, Carragher, Riise, Luis Garcia (Hamann 87), Alonso, Gerrard, Warnock, Mellor (Nunez 68), Sinama Pongolle. Subs Not Used: Traore, Harrison. Goals: Sinama Pongolle 44.
SOUTHAMPTON: Niemi, Telfer, Jakobsson, Higginbotham, Cranie, McCann, Prutton, Oakley (Anders Svensson 58), Delap, Ormerod, Blackstock (Phillips 65). Subs Not Used: Smith, Yahia, Folly. Booked: Prutton, McCann, Jakobsson. Att: 42,382.
Referee: M Halsey (Lancashire).
