Although the hosts had hardly threatened the visitors’ goal in the first half there seemed little wrong with their disallowed equaliser by Cahill in stoppage time but replays suggest that the eagle-eyed Styles could have spotted a possible foul by home skipper and lifelong Liverpool fan Kevin Nolan on Pepe Reina.

At the break, Megson decided to write off Fabrice Muamba’s attempted man-marking job of Gerrard as a bad job and introduced Gardner. The Jamaican looked immediately lively but also showed why his goal against Manchester City earlier this month was his first in domestic football for almost six years.

Played through by a inch-perfect diagonal pass by Gavin McCann which took out Hyypia, Gardner was through on goal and rounded Reina only to somehow skew his effort wide in a miss to rival Keane’s earlier effort.

The aforementioned Irishman was then withdrawn by Benitez and given that his replacement Torres is supposedly not match fit, the ex-Atletico Madrid striker didn’t do badly.

Immediately Bolton’s defence became stretched as Torres carved out a low cross from the right for the onrushing Gerrard but Liverpool’s captain was unable to make proper contact at full stretch and his effort went wide.

There were no such problems next time around though as Torres chased down Andy O’Brien and robbed the home centre-back of possession before picking out his skipper with an audacious flick enabling Gerrard to convert with a diving header.

By now it was end-to-end stuff and Jaaskelainen had to be at his brilliant best to save a powerful 25-yard effort by Alonso while in the Liverpool box, Gardner kept up his woeful finishing by volleying over the bar after being picked out by a Kevin Davies up and under.

Torres then hit the outside of Bolton’s left-hand post with a blazing effort following fellow substitute Lucas’s drag back while the Brazilian also wasted a good opportunity in the final seconds when he headed wide from Gerrard’s deep right wing cross.

They might be joint top of the table but Benitez believes that Liverpool still have plenty of room for improvement.

If that’s so then the rest of the Premier League better watch out because then everyone will be smiling at Anfield.