Torres turns the red tide

Bedlam had erupted inside Anfield.

Fernando Torres disappeared under a sea of team-mates; co-owner Tom Hicks threatened to tumble forward two rows in the directors' box as he high-fived those around him; but on the touchline Rafa Benitez stood deadpan and unmoved, glancing down only at his wrist-watch.
 
If time was running out for Manchester United, then for Liverpool manager Benitez redemption, rather than a sense of resignation, was heavy in the air.
 
Even after the shrill of the final whistle had sounded on an absorbing affair, enlivened at the end by dismissals for Nemanja Vidic and Javier Mascherano - plus the debate over whether Jamie Carragher should have joined them - Benitez still looked to apply a sense of perspective by arguing this was only one step on the road to a lasting recovery.

Yet, what a step it was. On the day the clocks went back, Liverpool, rediscovered the vim and vigour of six months ago to pierce the gloom that has engulfed the club during a harrowing week, and offer hope for the months to come.
 
When substitute David Ngog steered home a break-away goal in injury time to inflict United's second defeat of the campaign, the weight of this precious win could be measured in more than simply three much-needed points.
 
Psychologically, this was pivotal to a Liverpool team creaking under the pressure of posting the club's worst set of results for 22 years and in real danger of watching their campaign unravel.
 
Instead, they can now look forward with confidence and in the knowledge that they trail United by four points rather than 10 and are just six behind leaders Chelsea.
 
It helps, of course, that they have a striker of Torres' predatory powers to call upon when cornered and fighting for their lives.
 
The decision to pitch Torres straight into the frenzy - the atmosphere inflamed as beach balls were sent hurtling onto the pitch from both sets of supporters at kick-off - was only taken on the coach ride to the ground. How it paid off. There is something about Torres that drives Vidic and Rio Ferdinand to distraction and the scars of Liverpool's 4-1 demolition of United at Old Trafford last March were reopened. Initially, it was not simply his jet-heeled pace which caused consternation, but a willingness to go to ground whenever he felt the breath of his markers on the back of his shirt collar.
 
Yet, having implored Torres to stay on his feet, the visitors were ultimately to rue his insistence upon doing so. When Yossi Benayoun slipped an astute pass down the side of Vidic in the 65th minute and into the path of Torres, he could have crashed to the floor as Ferdinand desperately pawed at his shoulder.
 
His instincts served him better, however, and he stayed upright to drill an unstoppable shot high into the net beyond Edwin van der Sar.
 
Torres' contribution, especially given he was clearly not fully fit following a groin problem, added credence to Benitez's claim that all Liverpool have been missing has been their star names.
 
Victory, though, was about more than simply Torres. Mascherano was a bundle of energy in midfield, Lucas more refined but no less important, and Fabio Aurelio intelligent and unlucky not to open the scoring after 15 minutes with a curling free-kick that Van der Sar clawed away. And then there was the indomitable Carragher, his early-season wobbles forgotten amid a myriad of last-ditch tackles - as Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney will testify - and breathless endeavour.
 
However, United did disappoint going forward - Rooney seldom receiving the right ball in the right places and Dimitar Berbatov in one of his big-girl's-blouse moods. What attacking menace they did muster came from winger Antonio Valencia, but he could only clip the crossbar when their best chance fell to him with six minutes remaining.
 
The opportunity came after a lay-off from Michael Owen, who was serenaded with chants of "where were you in Istanbul" and, "once a Manc never a Red" when he replaced Berbatov in the 74th minute.
 
The one chance he had to ram those taunts back down the throat of the Kop came when Rooney tried to play him in - but there was his former room-mate Carragher to spark a wrestling match which ended with a free-kick in United's favour. That the card was yellow - not red - left Ferguson apoplectic with rage; his mood hardly improving when Vidic was sent off for the third successive game against Liverpool for tangling with Dirk Kuyt on the halfway line.
 
Mascherano soon followed for two bookings after an ill-advised lunge at Van der Sar, but it mattered little as, with United caught upfield in search of an equaliser, Lucas set Ngog free and he coolly did the rest.
 
But forget any notion of this being one in the eye for Benitez's critics, the biggest message was to Liverpool themselves. 

This story has been reproduced from today's media. It does not necessarily represent the views or position of Liverpool Football Club.