Things reached a nadir on Wednesday when a Wolverhampton Wanderers team who had collected a solitary point from their eight previous away games as they slid to the bottom of the league won 1-0 at Anfield - Liverpool's eighth defeat of the season.
If it had been a backs-to-the wall defensive effort with a breakaway goal then maybe Liverpool's fans could have swallowed the latest setback but it was anything but a fluke. Wolves dominated from start to finish, kept their first clean sheet of the season and should have had more goals.
"The fans have left angry and that's understandable," said manager Roy Hodgson, who cuts an increasingly desperate figure on the touchline with each passing match.
"However, it would be dangerous to clear a lot of players out on the basis of one game. We wanted our renaissance to start today but it hasn't happened. Panic would be the wrong thing to do but I'm not the sole arbiter of that."
Mick McCarthy's team might still go down but Liverpool's European ambitions are limited to the Europa League while their domestic target looks like being to climb above the likes of Blackpool, Stoke City, Blackburn Rovers and Sunderland for an upper mid-table finish.
That victory was Chelsea's first since Nov. 10 and lifted them back into the top four - four points behind leaders Manchester United and Manchester City and two behind Arsenal.
United, with games in hand on all their title rivals, visit West Bromwich Albion in Saturday's lunchtime kick-off while City are at home to irrepressible Blackpool later in the day.
Arsenal, who would have been joint-top if they had not given up a late equaliser in Wednesday's 2-2 draw at Wigan Athletic, visit Birmingham City while Chelsea host an Aston Villa side in freefall on Sunday. Fifth-placed Tottenham Hotspur are at home to Fulham on Saturday.
