IF the key to a successful relationship is consideration and putting others' needs before your own then Rafael Benitez seems to have hit upon a winning combination.
It's no wonder the Liverpool manager sat back with satisfaction following his side's second convincing home win in four days and declared that Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy were "a good couple."
It was all summed up perfectly by Kuyt's reaction to the opening goal on Saturday. He could easily have raced off to the corner to chase down scorer Mark Gonzalez as he wheeled away in delight after breaking 63 minutes of stubborn Tottenham resistance.
But the Dutch striker's only concern was his strike partner, still holding his head in disbelief at the open goal miss that brought about the opportunity for Gonzalez to sweep in his first Premiership goal.
The fact that Kuyt sidestepped the celebrations to give Bellamy a few words of encouragement sums up the sort of bonding that will be so vital to Liverpool's chances of sustaining the momentum picked up in the past week. In short, you can't challenge for titles without that kind of closeness.
Bellamy may be going through some personal frustration as he waits to add to the solitary Champions League qualifying round strike against Maccabi Haifa that signalled an ideal start to his Anfield career but one he hasn't been able to build on.
Against Spurs he had a simple tap-in after some mesmerising wing work from Steven Gerrard teed him up, but could only hit the post. While relieved to see Gonzalez follow up and make the miss irrelevant, it clearly wasn't to Bellamy, whose reluctance to join his team-mates' party by the corner flag was soon snapped out of him by Kuyt's words of encouragement.
Teamwork at its best. After all, Bellamy's blunder didn't affect the most important issue of Liverpool getting the platform they needed to make victory against their unambitious visitors a formality from that point.
Of course, it would have all been very different if Jermaine Jenas hadn't somehow contrived to stab the ball wide of an open goal less than a minute before Bellamy did similarly in the build-up to Gonzalez's nerve-settling opener.
But everything ran much more smoothly from that point on.
