Marc-Antoine Fortune, making his first appearance for the club since he returned from Celtic, fired in a low shot which goalkeeper Jose Reina collected at the second attempt while late in the half James Morrison sliced a long-range shot just wide.
New signing Raul Meireles, given the number four shirt vacated by Alberto Aquilani’s loan to Juventus, would have been hugely underwhelmed by what he saw.
It is doubtful, though, whether the display would have been enough to have had left-back Paul Konchesky, also watching from the stands, reconsidering whether to complete on his move from Fulham in the next 24 hours.
Four minutes after the interval Steven Gerrard controlled the ball on his chest before attempting a speculative 40-yard volley which dropped harmlessly wide of Carson’s left-hand post.
West Brom midfielder was off-target with two long-range efforts while the closest Liverpool came to scoring was when Martin Skrtel hooked a half-cleared Torres cross narrowly wide of the right-hand post.
That was until Baggies defender Jonas Olsson almost gifted them a goal when he attempted to roll Tamas’ pass back to Carson but sent it past the far upright.
The goal eventually came in the 65th minute when Torres combined with Dirk Kuyt down the left and when his team-mate returned the ball to the edge of the penalty area the Spain striker expertly shifted his position to volley into the turf and past Carson.
Seven minutes later he almost had his second when he side-footed Gerrard’s far-post cross straight at Carson.
Eight minutes from time he was denied again when Kuyt and Gerrard worked the ball across the top of the penalty area only for the Spaniard’s strike to be charged down by Gonzalo Jara with the aid of an arm - unseen by referee Lee Probert.
However, the referee did spot Morrison’s lunge at Torres and responded with a straight red card.
Torres departed after another 89-minute work-out safe in the knowledge he is gradually edging closer to his prolific best and Liverpool had secured their 2000th league victory.
