Liverpool 1 Wigan Athletic 2

The cups may offer consolation, but Liverpool’s league form is rapidly decomposing. If the most sympathetic description of recent performances was infuriating, a home defeat to Wigan crossed the border into humiliation. Manager Kenny Dalglish has regularly appealed for dissenters to consider the 'bigger picture’ when assessing the season, but this putrid effort resembled The Scream by Edvard Munch. The ghastly performance was Liverpool’s fifth defeat in their last six Premier League games, Gary Caldwell grabbing the 64th-minute winner which Roberto Martínez’s side never looked like surrendering. Identifying the side fighting relegation and the one who are so adamant they are in a false position was unfathomable from the first whistle. Liverpool were booed off by their own fans, who generously applauded the visitors. Wigan outplayed Dalglish’s side, the host’s attempts to reassert authority ranging from the conniving to the sheer desperate. First came the accusations of duplicity when Luis Suárez, who earlier scored a neat equaliser, attempted to escape with handballing Martin Skrtel’s header over the line. As he tried to disguise any wrongdoing by celebrating, he was correctly summoned by Lee Mason and shown a yellow card. Dalglish insisted the goal should have stood. “There is no reason why the goal should be chalked off. I don’t see it,” he said. “If it hit his hand I must have a different telly. It hit him on the shoulder. That’s what I thought, but we can’t control referees we can control ourselves.” This, as well as a suggestion fatigue was the biggest factor in their defeat, had a ring of desperation. So too did the manager’s last-gasp attempt to grab a point when he summoned 17 year-old Raheem Sterling to become the third youngest player in Liverpool’s history. He had four minutes to make an impression, and did more in that time than the rest of his team in the previous 86. The rot began on 27 minutes when Skrtel was penalised for a high kick on Victor Moses, which left the striker concussed and sent to hospital as a precaution. Shaun Maloney, who has invigorated Wigan, scored his first goal for the club from the resulting penalty. Suárez’s clever finish from Steven Gerrard’s pass two minutes into the second half threatened to shift the momentum. It didn’t last. Caldwell benefited when Ben Watson’s deflected shot fell at his feet and he beat Pepe Reina at The Kop end. This was Wigan’s first victory at Anfield, and in their quest for survival could be one their most valuable. Not surprisingly, Martínez differed in his view of Suárez’s ruled-out goal. “We all know Suárez is an artist at getting free-kicks and good situations for himself,” he said. “Lee Mason is a strong referee and had to be.” Liverpool have decried their luck too often this season for the claim to avoid hollowness this time. Whether it is misfortune, tiredness or sheer lack of quality, they are confronted with a league table which suggests remaining in the top 10 is their priority. The more they argue their natural place is in the top four, the less convincing they sound. They have to start living up their own billing because a third consecutive seventh-placed finish, or worse, should never be acceptable at such an illustrious venue. There will come a time when the stream of mitigating factors put forward need to give way to a blunt acknowledgement this is not good enough. Wigan have escaped relegation with a late rally before and look capable of repeating the trick. For Liverpool, it is now a case of forgetting the league and concentrating on the cups.