It’s just gone 4 o’clock on an August Merseyside Sunday afternoon. Fernando Torres slips, slides, leaves Tal Ben Haim on his backside and fires Liverpool ahead of Chelsea in the season’s first battle of the big four.

For the next hour Liverpool fans start to believe.

Five months later, it’s a similar time of the day, Alfie Potter doesn’t exactly slip or slide but he does leave Steve Finnan on his backside before his shot clips Martin Skrtel and gives part-timers Havant & Waterlooville a 2-1 lead at Anfield.

Liverpool fans had long since stopped believing…for another season at least.

Sunday’s return fixture to August’s 1-1 draw should have title repercussions written all over it but instead Liverpool lie 11 points behind Chelsea and 17 behind leaders Arsenal. And with those double digit margins, what’s a game in hand between “big four” mates?

With Inter Milan ten days away, Rafa Benitez faces another one of his crucial do or die periods yet tossing all his eggs in the Champions League basket is now too dangerous a tactic even to contemplate.

No only could Liverpool be pipped to fourth spot by Everton as they were three years ago, there’s a real threat they could finish outside the top six for only the third time in 43 years.

If only it were just the club’s prestige at stake. With mounting debts to pay, failure to qualify for the next season’s Champions League could be disastrous.

Liverpool must face facts: it’s time to concentrate all their resources on the Premier League and if that hurts their European chances, so be it. At the very least it’s a game in which the boss can’t take the captain off with half an hour to go.

PHOTO: Benitez watches from the touchline before the match against Sunderland at Anfield, February 2, 2008. REUTERS/Phil Noble.