My only disappointment was that none of the young players were included. I half expected to see Emiliano Insua, Jack Hobbs, Sebastian Leto or even Jay Spearing at least with the substitutes but even on the bench Benitez opted to rely on his more experienced players. Perhaps an admission that, since the owners only seem to focus on the present, then so will he.

It is difficult to look beyond Steven Gerrard whose three goals lifted Liverpool and make him the obvious man of the match but I thought that Ryan Babel had another outstanding performance particularly in the first half. With each game that passes he becomes ever more undroppable. Like most I'd like to see him up front alongside Fernando Torres - and Benitez has been occasionally using him there of late - but even on the left he seems a special player.

Jermaine Pennant is another who I thought played exceptionally well. His crosses caused Luton problem and that is something that has been missing from Liverpool's game of late. A big plus is that he seems to be working hard to improve with each game and, for all the rumours about him before he joined, he's been nothing short of a model professional since coming to Liverpool.

Finally, something about Jamie Carragher. Lately there has been some grumbling that he is too negative and hoofs the ball too much. It is typical of many fans' short memory for Carragher has been a great Liverpool player and his 500 games couldn't have been celebrated in better style. As a journalist on the Corriere Della Sera newspaper once opined, "if Jamie Carragher were Italian, we'd build entire dynasties around him."

No one really played badly yesterday, and the passing was always spot on