Benitez sees his side 12 points behind leaders Arsenal, still with a game in hand, but facing away games at the Emirates, Manchester United and Chelsea.

It is a daunting situation for the Spaniard, but he said: "I do not think there is a lack of confidence, we need more luck and to score the chances we are creating."

Liverpool led 1-0 through Fernando Torres' 16th goal of the season until 11 minutes from time when Titus Bramble grabbed a shock equaliser for Wigan.

Benitez added: "We are creating chances but not taking them. One more would have killed the game.

"We deserved more than we got. Their keeper made some very good saves, but we still made enough chances to have won the game.

"The league table is looking difficult, we need to reduce that gap but we must not start to look at the table too much, just keep going and keep creating chances.

"We can reduce the gap, but it is best not to talk about it, just go out and score the goals we are missing."

He added: "It is difficult to explain why our home form is not good. We are controlling all the games, we are passing the ball well, controlling almost everything. But we paid for one mistake.

"There is no need to analyse the four holiday games, we deserved to beat Manchester City, we deserved to win against Wigan, while we beat Portsmouth and Derby, but we have lost four points in these games and it has meant the gap is bigger.

"There is no point being too critical of performances. We know we were much better than City and Wigan but we know we need to win, that is simple."