Wigan Athletic 1 Liverpool 0:Fourth place slipped a little further out of Liverpool's reach at the DW Stadium thanks to a first half strike from Wigan Athletic's Hugo Rodallega and a horribly inept display from their opponents, who looked a team at odds with itself throughout.
Liverpool remain sixth, a point adrift of Tottenham in fourth and Manchester City in fifth, and three ahead of Aston Villa who have three games in hand. Spurs have played one game less than Rafael Benitez's side, City have a two-game advantage on the Reds.
Wigan's first ever win over Liverpool ended a run of seven league matches without a victory and lifted them four points clear of the relegation zone into 14th.
It was the sixth time in Liverpool's last eight away league matches in which they have failed to score.
The closest they came in this game was when Torres hit the outside of the upright after Maxi Rodriguez’s header from Steven Gerrard’s corner dropped to him at the far post.
But Wigan quickly grew in confidence and Marcelo Moreno was only inches from connecting with a driven cross through the six-yard area by Charles N’Zogbia, who was causing left-back Emiliano Insua plenty of problems.
Rodallega curled over a 20-yard free-kick after being fouled by Lucas Leiva while Insua’s difficulties against N’Zogbia continued as he was booked for bringing down his opponent in the centre-circle.
Gerrard could have opened the scoring in the 26th minute after good link play between Rodriguez, Kuyt and Yossi Benayoun but the England international’s first shot was blocked by Paul Scharner and although he quickly recovered he could not hit the target with the follow-up.
Lucas was next to be booked for tripping Titus Bramble and Sotirios Kyrgiakos was also cautioned for cynically blocking off Scharner.
Liverpool were struggling to find any sort of rhythm and their alarming tendency to give the ball away proved expensive in the 35th minute.
Kuyt, deep position on the left, rolled the ball aimlessly to Boyce who instantly fired a cross to the far post where Rodallega poked home.
It was the first time the Reds had conceded in the opening 45 minutes of a league match for 11 games.
Bramble was then booked for clattering into the back of Torres, who headed over Rodriguez’s cross from six yards just before half-time.
Within 42 seconds of the second half kicking-off Mascherano had to be quick to block Rodallega’s shot.
At the other end Torres, unusually for him, failed to hit the target from Rodriguez’s cut-back.
Ten minutes into the half Johnson replaced Lucas, with Mascherano returning to his favoured central midfield.
Liverpool almost gifted Wigan a second as Jose Reina came out to claim a through-ball only for Carragher to knock it past him and then smashed his clearance into Moreno.
The ball looped towards the goal only for Kyrgiakos to get back to head over his own crossbar.
However, Liverpool were not getting any better and Torres’ ambitious 25-yard volley summed things up when it went out for a throw close to the right corner flag.
Wigan should have had a second in the 73rd minute when Rodallega’s pass put N’Zogbia through but his shot was partially stopped by Reina and Johnson scrambled the ball out at the far post under pressure from Scharner.
Moments later Torres’ volley from Kuyt’s header down rolled agonisingly wide of the post.
Liverpool’s frustrations boiled over as first the Spain international was booked after chasing Boyce half the length of the pitch to bring him down and then Gerrard was then cautioned for diving in on McCarthy, despite appearing to win the ball.
A sign of Liverpool’s desperation could been seen in the five minutes of injury time when Kyrgiakos went to play up front.
It typified a night when the Reds’ short-comings this season were laid bare by an industrious but by no means brilliant Wigan side.