Stoke: Liverpool's revival was brought to a halt by a 2-0 loss to Stoke on Saturday, sending the Reds sliding down the Premier League table.
The 18-time champions had enjoyed a four-match unbeaten run in the league after their worst start to a season in more than 50 years.
But Ricardo Fuller opened the scoring for Stoke in the 56th minute and Kenwyne Jones completed a comprehensive victory in stoppage time.
There was still time for Liverpool midfielder Lucas Leiva to be sent off after being shown a second yellow card for kicking out at Matthew Etherington.
"Today was very difficult — Liverpool are a team getting back to their best and they have great players throughout the team, and it took a great effort throughout our team to beat them," Fuller said.
Liverpool appeared unprepared and unable to deal with Stoke's brash, energetic approach which allowed them to dominate the game throughout.
"The way we finished the game we finished strongly, I don't think it's a question of (tired) legs, it was just a failure to deal with the problems Stoke cause you," Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson said. "We don't have that weapon in our armory, we have to use our own weapons and I don't think we did that well enough until the last 25 minutes."
Stoke appealed unsuccessfully for a penalty in only the second minute when Maxi Rodriguez leant heavily on Fuller as they challenged for Rory Delap's long throw.
It was a sign of things to come as the visitors found themselves being forced back, looking susceptible to Delap's trademark set piece.
Midfielder Dean Whitehead benefited from weak headed clearances to fire in a low shot which Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina turned around a post. He then drilled a similar 30-meter (yard) effort just past the angle of upright and crossbar.
Jones and former Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant also had chances before Steven Gerrard registered Liverpool's first shot in the 29th, forcing Asmir Begovic to tip the low effort behind.
Less than two minutes into the second half Fernando Torres, who had been anonymous previously, was booked for tackling Pennant from behind.
But the real threat was still coming from Delap and Liverpool's inability to cope with his throw-ins finally cost them in the 56th.
A scramble saw the ball break to Matthew Etherington at the far post and his cross bounced back off Liverpool's Paul Konchesky to Fuller, who had his first effort blocked but he fired home the second from close range.
Jones almost made it two when Martin Skrtel mistimed his jump but his left-footed effort beat both Reina and the far post.
Liverpool had two chances in quick succession with Rodriguez shooting straight at Begovic from Dirk Kuyt's cut-back and Skrtel firing wide from Kyrgiakos' knockdown of Gerrard's free kick.
Liverpool's troubles were completed in the 90th when Gerrard gave the ball away and Jones was able to skip past Skrtel to add Stoke's second.
"I thought we worked hard on defending that as well as we could during the week but once we went behind we had to take more risks," Hodgson said. "We hoped that would get us back in the game but unfortunately not.
"Today most of the day is about defending long throws and long balls forward."
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