To the strains of a bizarre club song that goes “We’re not Real Madrid, we’re not Barcelona, we’re Fulham and Al Fayed’s the owner”, the Harrods tycoon struts across the pitch waving a black and white scarf, ruffling his players’ hair and milking the home fans’ applause.

Whether the sentiment from the Fulham faithful towards the Egyptian is genuine is unclear but the smiles were soon wiped off their faces as Liverpool pushed forward with alarming regularity.

Roy Hodgson may have selected the same 11 players who had disposed of United 2-0 a fortnight earlier but on this occasion they were firmly second best.

Looking more comfortable pushing forward from the left wing rather than in a full-back’s role, Andrea Dossena forced Mark Schwarzer to tip a shot over the bar before rattling the crossbar with a header when facing away from goal and cleverly deflecting Martin Skrtel’s effort.

Xabi Alonso then rattled the crossbar after Aaron Hughes had headed out a Gerrard corner-kick and it looked just a matter of time before the hosts would crumble.

The slickest move of the match should have been finished by Torres after he played a one-two with Gerrard, cushioning a header to his captain before receiving the ball back courtesy of a perfectly-placed diagonal pass but the Spaniard’s shot struck the foot of Schwarzer’s right-hand post.

Then just before the interval the marauding Dossena popped up in the centre-forward’s position to head on to the bar from close range after a right-wing cross by Gerrard had bounced up.

The chances were less clear cut after the break but Liverpool continued to press.

Inevitably as the clock ticked down it looked increasingly likely that Fulham would again play their part in the title race as ‘spoilers’ and one local scribe had already penned his into of ‘Cor blimey, they’ve done it again.’ But as the fourth official signalled four additional minutes to the groans of the home fans, that report, presumably along with many others, was ripped up.

Picked out by Gerrard, substitute Benayoun, who had been one of Benitez’s injury worries during the international break, crashed in at the back post having earlier hit the side-netting.

Cue pandemonium. Liverpool’s players, staff and fans all know that the destination of the Premier League title this season could be settled as much at Craven Cottage this season as either Anfield or Old Trafford.