Gerrard, playing in a free role behind lone striker Kuyt, repeatedly carved the home side open with support from Lucas Leiva, Javier Mascherano, Yossi Benayoun and Ryan Babel, and finally opened the scoring with 31 minutes gone.

Sami Hyypia added a second within five minutes before Given made the last of six superb first-half saves.

Defender David Edgar briefly gave Newcastle hope when he headed home from Danny Guthrie’s corner, but Babel made it 3-1 early in the second half.

Gerrard made sure of three points with a delicious 66th-minute finish, and Xabi Alonso’s penalty after fellow substitute David Ngog had been tripped by Edgar 10 minutes later simply rubbed salt into black and white wounds.

By that point, Gerrard had been warmly applauded from the pitch by both sets of supporters when he was replaced by Ngog.

Benitez’s number two Sammy Lee said: “If you speak to Steven Gerrard, he will say the same thing, that he is looking to improve.

“That’s the difference between world-class players, they don’t settle for what they have got, they work very, very hard on a daily basis to improve all aspects of their game.

“Each and every one of our players is looking to improve.”