Rafael Benitez said a shortage of confidence – not quality – was costing Liverpool in response to his side's damaging 2-1 home defeat by Arsenal on Sunday. The result means the Reds have now slipped to seventh in the Premier League table and trail leaders Chelsea by 13 points. Dirk Kuyt had given the Merseysiders a deserved lead but an own goal from Glen Johnson and winner from Andrey Arshavin put the under-fire Spaniard on the back foot again. Benitez felt some key decisions had gone against his players and argued the own goal had affected the team mentally. "After the first half everyone was convinced that it was a different team and a different situation and a team with a different mentality," he said. He added: "Maybe we needed to score the second goal and then to have this advantage for some games and then we will see if we can keep the confidence high. You could see after the own-goal that everything was different and we were without any confidence when we were passing the ball. It's not a question of quality. It's a question of confidence."