The Spaniard missed the 1-0 Champions League win over Inter Milan on Tuesday to be at his girlfriend's side as she gave birth to their first son. But he returned for the 2-1 defeat of Reading as Liverpool continued their excellent run of form.

"It's been a great week, for the club of course and for me personally," he said. "It's really exciting and I am happy with everything at the moment."

lucky enough

Javier Mascherano and Fernando Torres netted for Liverpool after a superb effort from Marek Matejovsky put the visitors in front. But Alonso admitted Liverpool's fifth league win in a row did not come easily.

"It was a very tough game," he added. "They did very well scoring from that set piece at the start of the game. It left us with a hard task but we were lucky enough to score two goals.

"At the end they pushed hard and we had to defend but we were good enough to claim the three points that we needed to remain in fourth place."