Thanks to carelessly conceding a late penalty, Liverpool were held to a third successive league draw and have slipped to third in the table. They have not managed a win in the 20 days since Benítez's unexpected denunciation of Sir Alex Ferguson. In the same time Manchester United have won six times in three competitions. They lead the division by two points, with a game in hand.
Liverpool were on course for a win here, through a first-half goal from Yossi Benayoun, yet just when Wigan were getting desperate Jason Koumas was upended by Lucas Leiva and Mido marked his debut with a goal from the spot.
"We were in control in the first half but the second half was crazy," Benítez said, hinting that more protection from the referee was required but refusing to elaborate. "I am disappointed we didn't kill the game when we had control, because there is nothing anyone can do when it gets crazy. The last three games have had something in common that I don't like." Benítez is in a hole and needs to stop digging. Wigan, like Everton, were not unduly physical, the referee had a decent game and there was no doubt about the penalty.
"We had to make big changes but the resilience was there again," Steve Bruce said, before arguing it was far too early to write off Liverpool's title chances. "We stick at it here, as Liverpool know. We should have beat them at Anfield but the referee made a balls-up."
Benítez was as good as his word and Robbie Keane was restored to the squad, though the £20m striker only made the bench, with Steve Gerrard pushed forward as support for Fernando Torres. Keane only took the field for the seven minutes after Wigan had equalised. Little was seen of Torres for the first 10, scrappy minutes, yet with virtually his first significant touch he reminded Wigan of the danger he poses. Climbing above Emmerson Boyce to meet Gerrard's cross from the left, he struck a post with a downward header that rebounded along an unprotected goal line.
Missing Antonio Valencia as well as the departed Wilson Palacios, the Wigan midfield reverted to its old habit of giving illustrious opponents too much respect. Mido would not have had too many communication problems with his Egyptian partner, Amr Zaki, though there were times when he could have done with a telescope to find the rest of his team.
Torres and Gerrard appeared to be having an off day, neither reading the other's runs, but four minutes before the break Wigan were undone by a player they should have known about. Benayoun scored the winner here last season and hit the target on his last visit with West Ham, so his goal represented some sort of hat-trick. Phil Dowd allowed play to continue despite Maynor Figueroa's foul on Gerrard and Benayoun fastened on to Javier Mascherano's through ball to find the net from an almost impossible angle. The ball almost went dead as he rounded Mike Pollitt, yet he somehow clipped it between the posts.
Gerrard almost made it two with the last kick of the half, sending a free-kick inches over from 25 yards, and at the start of the second half Fabio Aurelio's effort was easily held by Pollitt. The free-kick had come about when Figueroa earned a booking for a blatant block on Benayoun, after Wigan had needlessly given the ball away.
As full-time approached there was nothing to suggest Wigan could rescue anything and Liverpool seemed to settle for a one-goal win when they withdrew Torres after 72 minutes. Lee Cattermole's adventurous crossfield pass then caught the visitors too high up the pitch. Michael Brown played Koumas in, Lucas brought him down and Mido scored his goal. Keane was sent on and, as the player he replaced was Gerrard, it was very much to chase a lost cause. Wigan made an attacking subsitution of their own, introducing Hugo Rodallega, and the Colombian hit the bar with a stoppage-time free-kick. Defeat would have been too hard on Liverpool. With Chelsea to face on Sunday, losing their lead and possibly what remains of their confidence was bad enough.
