The last few weeks have been painful for Jurgen Klopp and his Liverpool side.
In this most atypical of seasons, we’ve seen some incredibly strange results and also performances from some of the top teams that have been well below average.
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Nowhere has this situation been more marked than at Anfield, where Klopp’s men were continuing where they left off last season.
Their record 7-0 away win at Crystal Palace was seen as a benchmark for this season, but thereafter, and until the Reds played Spurs this week, they’d managed only one goal in five top-flight games, none of them won.
The manner of the win at White Hart Lane has convinced John Barnes that his former team are still title contenders, however.
“It was more like it against Tottenham, but only more like it in terms of scoring goals,” he said on talkSPORT radio, cited by talkSPORT.
“As you saw against Burnley, even when we lost to Manchester United 3-2 we had been getting forward, creating chances and playing in the same way.
“When you analyse the game if you take the goals out, you’d say we were creating chances, we’re playing well and we’re defending well, but we’re not winning.
“Then you can say as long as we are doing the same thing, we will come good.
“Of course with Mane, Salah and Firmino they went through a blip but they haven’t all of a sudden become bad players.
“The only difference between the win over Tottenham and the games against Burnley and Man United is that they actually scored.
“It was a good game for us and hopefully now people will say… I never thought we were out of the title race and I never thought we would have a problem.
“It was a bit of a blip and now we’re still four points off the top.”
Liverpool have another tough assignment in London this Sunday, with David Moyes’ resurgent West Ham side looking to deal another hammer blow to the Reds chances of retaining their first-ever Premier League crown.