Michael Owen did it again on Tuesday night.
Michael Owen did it again on Tuesday night. His hat-trick saw Liverpool retrurn from Moscow with all three Champions League points
Michael Owen did it again on Tuesday night. Just as was the case in Slovakia, when his team were behind and needed Michael to come up with something special, England's star striker produced the goods.
A trademark hat-trick from Michael secured Liverpool a 3-1 victory away to Spartak Moscow, leaving Liverpool boss Gerard Houllier in no doubt as to his worth to the team.
The Liverpool chief said: "Michael deserves special credit for his hat- trick, to do that away from home in Europe is a special achievement."
Arguably Michael's greatest strength is his amazing ability to shine when it most counts, the sign of the truly great players.
"I remember that a couple of months ago Michael was getting all sorts of stick for not scoring goals. Now he's done it for us and England," purred Houllier.
"I rested him because that game for England in Bratislava was on a very heavy pitch and took a lot out of him.
"But when I bring him back I know he is the one to score the important goals on big occasions."
Although it was not such a successful night at Highbury where Arsenal went down 2-1 to Auxerre, Arsene Wenger insisted there was no cause for panic.
Wenger said: ``There is no basic reason to be alarmist.
``You have periods like these in a season. I believe this team is strong mentally and will recover from tonight. It's very important that we bounce back now, that's the biggest thing.
``We still need a point to qualify. So nothing has changed from the start of the game.
``We win and lose as a team. There was not the usual defensive stability and we gave them too much room but I'm not here to say if it was anyone's fault,'' argued Wenger.
``The most important thing is that we lost to a good team so give credit to Auxerre. They started very well, while we had not recovered from the shock of losing on Saturday.
``We reacted positively in the second half and gave everything but finished jaded physically.''