Reina was immaculate in the little he had to do. Aurelio and Riise did okay, even if they were a bit sloppy in possession. Arbeloa was fine, although he didn't really get involved in an attacking sense.
Mascherano snapped some good passes in, but was a bit sloppy at times, Gerrard was below par by his standards, but thankfully stopped taking the corners later on, and put his pen away masterfully. Benayoun was a bit disappointing after midweek, but still showed flashes of inspiration - he was unlucky with the floated effort from the left.
Voronin was probably my man of the match - really energetic performance, with tons of imagination in and around the box. Some really good use of the ball, and very, very unlucky not to score. Crouch again showed why he's a first 11 player. Hit the bar first half, but was a nuisance to their defence throughout, and his run led to the penalty.
Hats off to Torres though. I worried a bit that this game came a bit too soon for him coming back in, but he was incredibly lively when he came on, and he could have had a second. Babel too got involved straight away, and added energy to our attacking play.
All in all, absolutely no complaints. Yes, we'd like these goals to come earlier, but we utterly bossed the game, and even with a few players being slightly sloppy we got to the final whistle with the win.
Well done Rafa for giving the midweek 11 another chance, and good job all round to the lads out there.
One big minus for me was the crowd, who were dead for long spells today. What happened to the Anfield crowds that would keep the noise levels way up for 90 minutes, irrespective of what's going on in the game? Far too often the Fulham fans were making themselves heard.
4th, unbeaten, ahead of Chelsea, still fighting in the Champions League, 10 goals in 2 games, 0 conceded. That's not a bad week by any measure.
by 