Owen jets back, Liverpool stroll onwards

Charlton Athletic 0 Liverpool

Michael Owen survived for 62 minutes and scored his 14th goal of the season. Those were the two most memorable statistics of an otherwise largely forgettable afternoon at the Valley. Liverpool strolled to their third victory in four matches since Phil Thompson took over as caretaker manager, while Charlton's troubles are beginning to extend beyond the stage of an early season hangover. Just one win at home – and four goals – in six matches. This is a far cry from the neat and progressive outfit who consolidated their position in the Premiership so creditably last season.

In the stand, Sven Goran Eriksson would have noted Owen's light-footed return, pondered a patchy display by Steven Gerrard, also returning from injury, and, for a half at least, pushed the names of Danny Murphy and Jamie Carragher higher up his list of World Cup hopefuls. Carragher, playing in the centre of defence in the absence of Sami Hyypia, was outstanding. "He'll put his foot or his head in anywhere for Liverpool," said Thompson. "You can always rely on him."

The curiosity was that Thompson should pick out two defenders, Carragher and Stéphane Henchoz, for particular mention, given that Liverpool were two goals to the good by half-time and, with Borussia Dortmund and Manchester United next in line, playing well within themselves. Liverpool's limited attention span was the chief cause. Mesmeric passing in the first half degenerated into undignified defensive scrambling in the second, a thoroughly familiar failing for Gérard Houllier, convalescing back in Liverpool. "Caviar and cabbage," Thompson termed the two halves. Charlton, though, only briefly looked like profiting from Liverpool's complacency.

"We had little half chances and had we nicked a goal, who knows?" said Curbishley. "It might have been a bit different. But we got beat and we have to get on with it. I've been here 10 years now and you think you've seen most things, but this has been the most difficult start I've had, for all sorts of reasons." Injuries mostly, but Andy Todd's training ground tantrums have hardly helped Charlton's morale in recent days.

So characterless were they on Wednesday, Bob the Dog, the analyst for the Charlton website, nominated Shaun Newton for his Silver Bone man of the match award. Newton was transferred to Wolves in the close season, but joined the away fans at Villa Park to see his old teammates. By all accounts, he should have stayed at home. Even Alan Curbishley, one of the League's more animated note-takers, admitted that by half-time he still had a blank sheet of paper."Woeful," he said in yesterday's programme notes, which was not a very encouraging advertisement for the 2,527 first-time season ticket-holders populating the newly opened upper tier of the north stand. Charlton's crowd of 22,887 was the biggest at the Valley for 24 years.

Curbishley recalled Euell – more, presumably, to exploit the absence of Hyypia's height in defence than for his philanthropic sponsorship of the match programme – and John Robinson, but he might have replaced all XI. Thompson had the luxury of leaving out Robbie Fowler, who scored a hat-trick at Leicester in his last Premiership appearance, and bringing back Owen five weeks after suffering a recurrence of his hamstring injury.

Gerrard was also back to reinforce Liverpool's midfield, while Jamie Redknapp replaced Gary McAllister from the midweek Champions' League draw against Boavista. There was plenty for Eriksson to ponder, anyway.

Not that the England manager would have deduced anything remotely profound from a lackadaisical first half in the unseasonal sunshine. If the weather was more mid-August than clocks-back time, so was the pace. Liverpool, happy to weave pretty patterns in midfield, could hardly believe the lack of zest in the home team. Charlton manned their turf in straight lines like sentries, as if lacking the will or the confidence to get the ball and play. Liverpool simply exploited the spaces in between, with Murphy, on a rich vein of form at present, linking most of their best moves. Only an inability to fashion the right pass stopped Liverpool from opening the scoring rather earlier than the 15th minute.

After all the slick interplay, the goal came from a simple set-piece. A long throw-in by Stephen Wright was flicked on by Gerrard and volleyed home ecstatically by Redknapp, his first League goal for 19 months. Not until Claus Jensen drove wide from 20 yards did Charlton mount any serious threat. It was only the prelude to the decisive sequence of the match.

Presented with a golden chance seven yards out by Mark Kinsella's clever header, Jonatan Johannson stabbed the ball just wide. Moments later, Owen latched on to Dietmar Hamann's pass to slip the ball past Dean Kiely.

"It was the timing of the goals which knocked the stuffing out of us," moaned Curbishley. "You could tell from the crowd, they were just stunned." Three chances in quick succession just after half-time at least lifted local spirits. Johansson's cross eluded Jerzy Dudek and deflected off the bar, Euell stabbed wide when he should have scored and Robinson cracked a left foot volley against Dudek's right-hand post.

Yet there was no real coherence to Charlton's pressure, even when Wright, already given a yellow card for bundling over Robinson, was sent off for clattering into Kinsella. Arsenal are next for Charlton. "Then we can get back to playing in our own little league," said Curbishley. An apt reflection of the Premiership's class society.

Charlton Athletic 0 Liverpool 2

Redknapp 14, Owen 43

Half-time: 0-2 Attendance: 22,887