Bolton Wanderers 2 Liverpool 3

The Premier League game between Bolton Wanderers and Liverpool at the Reebok Stadium on Saturday Aug 29, 2009.

Steven Gerrard must have a copy of the Premier League’s script. After a week of criticism from inside and out of the Liverpool captain’s form, there could be no ending other than Rafa Benitez’s talisman scoring the winning goal to settle a feisty, unpredictable game and kick-start Liverpool’s season.

Just as against Aston Villa last Monday, Liverpool dominated proceedings from the off, only to fall behind to a careless goal from a set-piece after little more than half an hour. Benitez’s side were hardly electric, but when they fell behind, they had given their limited hosts barely a sniff of the ball and carved out the game’s better chances, all of which fell to Fernando Torres, and all of which were spurned.

The Spanish international is, at times, a curious beast. Few can rival his claim to the status of the world’s most complete striker, but there is a profligacy to his play that suggests he has not yet shod his raw edge. It was there when he narrowly failed to connect with Johnson’s driven cross after 13 minutes, allowing it, instead, to flash across goal, when his heavy touch offered Jussi Jaaskelainen a reprieve after debutant Sotiris Kyrgiakos’s ball had split the Bolton defence and when he raced on to Lucas’s through ball and tried to chip the Finn.

Kevin Davies, of course, cannot match Torres’s panache and talent, but he is unquestionably efficient, finding himself the beneficiary of a goalmouth scramble from Matthew Taylor’s corner to tap Gary Megson’s side ahead. It was Bolton's first goal of the season, and it came from their first attack.

Liverpool, stung, redoubled their efforts, Torres firing across goal from another Johnson cross before Zat Knight’s telescopic legs denied him the chance to convert Albert Riera’s through ball. Johnson’s goal, cutting inside Cohen and wrongfooting Jaaskelainen, was no less than Liverpool deserved.

Benitez’s side, though, have been the architects of their own troubles this season, and few among the travelling support will have been surprised when Kyrgiakos failed to deal with Davies and his knock-down squirmed to Cohen, the Israeli, son of the former Liverpool player Avi, who rifled past Reina less than two minutes after the break.

If that was not enough to galvanise Liverpool, Sean Davis’s dismissal certainly was. Booked for dissent in the first period, the former Portsmouth player cynically tripped Lucas as the Brazilian broke forward. Almost immediately, Gerrard had crashed one shot on to the bar before Torres calmly slotted the equaliser from Kuyt’s pass.

Liverpool swarmed forward, Gerrard, Torres, Kuyt and even Kyrgiakos going close, the visitors earning corner after corner and creating chance after chance, before the captain volleyed home from the edge of the box with seven minutes to play.