OF all the banners unfurled on the Kop in celebration at the final whistle yesterday, none could describe another remarkable Anfield occasion quite as well as one from the history book.

“Form is temporary, class is permanent” may have become one of the many clichés that litter football’s landscape, but it cannot have been far from the thoughts of the Liverpool supporters that floated home having seen their team’s revival continue in impressive fashion.

As beaten Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti addressed the media deep in the bowels of the famous old stadium, the strains of the Black Eyed Peas’ hit “Boom Boom Pow” seeping through the walls of the Liverpool dressing room next door threatened to drown out the Italian. It seemed an apt soundtrack for the Premier League leaders after they were downed by a double blow from a reborn Fernando Torres.

The Spaniard has been the focal point of plentiful discussion around Anfield and beyond following his lacklustre start the season that has prompted rumour of unrest and an inevitable departure.

Torres, though, will be the talking point for the right reasons this morning after demonstrating a devastating return to form to earn Liverpool a fourth successive win and the most notable triumph of Roy Hodgson’s reign.

Yet it wasn’t just the manner in which the striker despatched Dirk Kuyt’s exquisite 11th-minute throughball before unleashing a sublime curling effort moments before the interval that will have pleased his manager.