Phil Neville won the toss of the coin and opted to defend the Kop goal in the first forty-five minutes, thus giving the onus to his defenders of facing Fernando Torres at his favourite side of the pitch at his freshest. His decision back-fired to him as early as the sixth minute, as the latter scored his fifteenth goal in his debut season, infront of the legendary stand. There have been instances where the Kop was said to have sucked the ball in, but yesterday there was no need for that, as the superlative Spaniard’s shot was accurate and powerful enough to beat the opposing keeper that yesterday happened to be Tim Howard.

Everton looked to have done enough to avert the danger from a Steven Gerrard corner, and Yakubu seemed to have taken it for himself to coolly start a counter-attack. Xabi Alonso though dispossessed him easily, fed Dirk Kuyt who sequently propositioned to Torres. Beating the offside trap, Torres instinctively drove towards the goal and just lashed a shot past the American. In his first Merseyside derby, Torres got the match-winner.

Torres’ goal was worthy enough of any match-winner but it was only to profligacy, bad luck and the post that Liverpool, particularly Steven Gerrard did not add up to this solitary goal, consequently leaving the result and the fate of the three points in doubt. Gerrard’s dominance on the pitch was never transferred to goals, but it was only the folklore of the Merseyside derby that everything can happen, that seeded these doubts as Pepe Reina hardly had a save to make, and Everton looked miles apart from Liverpool, in the process justifying their decision to uproot their stadium to Kirkby, leaving the whole city to the club with the Liverbird badge.

The minimum required, that is qualification for the Champions League seems to be well on track and within sight, as this five points margin will give the reds a breathing space, that with Arsenal on the horizon for three consecutive times will be much needed. In the meantime, a certain degree of belief must have returned to the side that made last Easter feel like Ash Wednesday.

Just after the Barnsley defeat, and consequently the humbling exit from the F.A. Cup, it was widely felt that Liverpool has hit rock bottom. Like a brick thrown into the abyss of a well by some unskilled labourer. With Inter Milan next in three days time, the lure of Champions League wasn’t feeling too great. A big meal is awaiting when you have just thrown anything inside your guts possibly through food poison. The thought of it alone makes you even sicker, but you know you have to attend. Liverpool had to honour the fixture, just not to make matters worse.

At that time, statistically a mere month ago, the blindest optimists would argue that the only way is up. Surely Liverpool couldn’t sink even further. It seems that the food poison just helped to shed a few kilos off the body weight and a few inches off the waist. Since then Liverpool have looked leaner and lighter. They looked different and consequently have won matches - for seven consecutive times. Gloom has turned into glare, and optimism has turned into expectation. Once again, Liverpool repelled the adversity. Forthcoming matches are not chores anymore but the main point of your week.

When last Saturday, the Czech Matejovsky produced a superlative effort, reminding us of his compatriot Patrik Berger, after just five minutes, heads were ruffled but the same heads never went down. The hill got steeper, another gear was put in, simple. The name of Javier Mascherano got sung around Anfield to the tune of The White Stripes, Seven Nation Army song. Since that afternoon against Barnsley, the Argentinean has put his name officially on the books of Liverpool F.C. after a too long saga, put his name a few times on the ‘Man of the Match’ statistics, and now even on a score-sheet. Talk of a good month! And then, a floated free-kick through Steven Gerrard got met by Fernando Torres. And the rest is history. The latter achieved the twentieth Premiership goal and another three points were won.

To put things into perspective, through these seven games, Liverpool has beaten home and away one of the top sides in Europe in Inter Milan, and then four times out of five won at home against lower opposition in the Premiership. The other time, Liverpool put to the sword, a team that is currently in the eighteenth position.

What is though more encouraging is the way Liverpool accomplished these five wins on the trot. Scoring fifteen and conceding a mere three is a testament that Liverpool have been adventurous and played great football. Another even more encouraging aspect of it all is the way Fernando Torres had a hand in this run with his eight goals, and stamped his class all over the place. I, for one, am a firm believer in team work, but only a player of his class can make the whole difference in the small details. His telepathic understanding with Steven Gerrard is a marvel.

What Rafael Benitez has achieved against Inter Milan is to his great credit, and an immeasurable achievement. He has only repeated his triumphal tactical acumen on the biggest stage of them all. He has done it all before albeit in not such audacity. After these five consecutive wins, he changed the mood into his dressing room, the streets of Liverpool and every red’s around. He has built a strong foundation for the next five big matches.

In Rafa’s own words, it’s the next one that matters for the moment. And the next one is one of the biggest in the fixture list and the recent record is only forgettable. It is now time to consolidate this great run and for Rafa to emulate Mascherano and break his duck on the local stage against his inferior in European football. With a little help from his compatriot, big things can happen.

There have been distractions off the pitch which have been marring the whole season, and leaving a sour taste and sore wounds on every red. Yesterday we had the perfect distraction from it all. Yesterday there was no need of vetoes, the feeling was mutual. Two wins over the Serie A Champions, leaders and probably champions elect is a confirmation of the sans pareil European pedigree Liverpool F.C. holds and is continuing to carry. And we are able to dream again. We respect the glorious past, we hold on every thread of folk story that make Liverpool F.C. what is today, and we are adding chapters in the unique encyclopedia that is this club.

The special night at Anfield over Inter Milan three weeks ago was respected and now alleviated with this performance. The two goal advantage Liverpool travelled with was not only looked after but ended in giving dividends. It created space for the forwards. And I cannot wish to anyone else than Torres to be the Liverpool forward. He either makes the keeper tremble, work hard or feeling useless. The striker at the other end is considered one of the very top forwards in European football and has a record that speaks for itself. On evidence of these two matches, our Spaniard made him look one of the others, one of the masses.

There was no longing for the final whistle. There were no complications at the end. It was made swift. And a usually partisan crowd which probably believes that Milan is the world stood up and applauded the team from Merseyside. No booing or whistling. Just mutual respect for a self-made aristocrat in European football which never forgets his roots.

It was Jean Paul Sartre who once said, ‘In football everything is complicated by the presence of the other team’. Having witnessed what the opposing Jaaskelainen succumbed to in the twelfth minute, the validity of such quote gets well defied. A run of the mill shot by Steven Gerrard looked to be trickling harmlessly away, but a dive by the former helped the ball into the net. For a change, Lady Luck decided to court Liverpool. It was only in such a moment that such lady was apparent though, as from then on Liverpool just went on their job at the Reebok Stadium and got what they wanted, in the process getting three goals and the equivalent number of points.

There was no need of heroics, no need of a particular man to stand up above the others and take the issues single handedly. The collective effort of the eleven men in red was too much for the lowly Bolton and made a mockery of the hoodoo the Reebok Stadium supposedly holds for Liverpool. Still there was the usual man of the match, and in my eyes it goes to Ryan Babel, who decided to hug the left touchline and at the same time abandon it to cut off towards the thick of the action and test the red faced Jaaskelainen. Babel though was most of the time marginally less luckier than Gerrard as after defying the credibility of Sartre’s quote he took it up to himself to repay the Frenchman back. Still he could do nothing when on the hour mark the Dutchman got his just reward for his afternoon’s work as his shot got past him and into the net.

And then it was Aurelio’s turn to get on the score-sheet. For the first time ever. It was a sweet left volley that arched its way through the crowd. He has been close before, usually from dead ball situations. This time his instincts reaped him more dividends than his thoughts. He is Brazilian, but at times he looks more Norwegian. At the moment, credit where it is, his performances are enough to get the nod ahead of the other Norwegian Riise.

The clean sheet was later blotched. It only helped to enrage the dependent Reina for a moment though as the three points were already safe in the bag, and another away win was recorded. The quest of getting three points for the consolation of the fourth place continues on Wednesday against West Ham at Anfield. Another effective performance should straighten Sartre’s complicated matters on offer by the bubbly Hammers.