Jordan: We won't give up
Jordan Henderson acknowledged Liverpool's disappointment at Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Arsenal – but insisted no-one within the squad is ready to give up hope of a top-four finish this season.
The Reds could consider themselves highly unfortunate not to have taken all three points from a contest they dominated at Anfield.
Dirk Kuyt had an early penalty saved by Wojciech Szczesny before Laurent Koscielny put through his own net to give Kenny Dalglish's side a deserved lead.
Luis Suarez then struck the post, but Robin van Persie levelled for the Gunners against the run of play shortly after the half-hour mark.
The chances continued to come for Liverpool, with Kuyt hitting the woodwork, but Van Persie won it for Arsenal in stoppage time with a close-range volley.
The result leaves the Reds 10 points behind the Londoners, but with a game in hand and plenty of football still to play in 2011-12, Henderson is adamant the players won't be conceding their ambition of finishing in the top four.
"Obviously we're disappointed with the result. I thought we should have gotten something out of the game," the midfielder told Liverpoolfc.tv.
"We played some good football, particularly in the first half, and had some good chances.
"But that's the way football goes. We've got a big game next week and we've got to try and bounce back."
He added: "I don't think it (Liverpool's top-four ambition) is over.
"There is plenty of football left, so we've just got to keep working hard, try to get the right results and keep playing like we did against Arsenal."
Henderson turned in an energetic display against Arsenal and played a part in helping Liverpool create a succession of chances against their opponents.
Although the England U21 international believes the Reds deserved more from the contest, he feels they can derive positives from their performance.
"You could say it was a case of us not taking our chances," said Henderson. "As I said, we played some good stuff, worked really hard as a team closing down and I think we caused them problems.
"If we keep playing like that, I am sure we'll get better results.
"I think we can take positives from the performance. Everyone was disappointed after the game, but I think over the next couple of days we'll realise we did play some good stuff and created chances - that's all you can ask for.
"We'll keep working hard and hopefully next week will be a better result."
Liverpool are next in action on Saturday when they travel to Sunderland.
It's a game that holds added significance for Henderson having moved to Anfield from the Black Cats in the summer - but he insists there will be no room for sentiment as the Reds look to return to winning ways.
He said: "I'm looking forward to going back there. It's a great place to play and all the boys are looking forward to it as well. We need to bounce back from the Arsenal result.
"It's a really good stadium to play in, the fans are brilliant and I'm sure everyone will look forward to it."