Torres and Gerrard seal points

Liverpool left it late to grab three points against Fulham thanks to two goals from Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres. The Anfield side looked quiet throughout and the 2-0 victory will leave Fulham a little hard done by.

The Reds dominated the entire game and wasted a host of opportunities to break the deadlock.

The breakthrough came nine minutes before the final whistle from Spaniard Torres, who came on as a substitute.

The former Atletico Madrid man cut inside Aaron Hughes and fired a low drive at the near post from close range.

Steven Gerrard ensured the victory four minutes later from the penalty spot after Peter Crouch was fouled by Carlos Bocanegra.

Proud of Torres

Benitez said of Torres: "It is good he is back fit, now I have the sort of problems I like with several fit strikers to choose from.

"It was important for Torres to be back and important that he can score goals like that.

"At the end I said well done to them all, not just Torres, his job is to score goals."

Remarkably for him, Benitez had kept an unchanged side for the first time this season following the 8-0 win over Besiktas in the Champions League on Tuesday.

He explained: "I felt it was right to give a side who score eight another chance, but you could see some were tired at the end, so I had to make changes. Would I do it again? Only if they score another eight goals."

Lawrie Sanchez said afterwards: "I felt we were heading for a point, and so I think did 43,000 other people.

"But Liverpool brought a bit of talent off the bench and it changed the game. I actually felt that Torres mishit his final shot, and that is what confused Hughes and Niemi. It was a soft goal in the end to concede.

"As for the penalty, I don't believe it was in the box, it wasn't a penalty.

"I felt we had kept them quiet, restricted them to shots from outside the box in the first half.

"It wasn't working for them. That is why they brought on three substitutes. One at £25million, one at £11million and one at £5million. I think there should be a cap on the price of players you can bring on, maybe no more than £20million of players."