Liverpool 2 Fulham 0:The price of Fernando Torres varies according to who paints the picture of his record- breaking transfer from Atletico Madrid to Liverpool.

The selling club claimed €38 million amid protests on the streets of the Spanish capital at his departure this summer; the buyers said €26.5 million rising to €32 million, with Luis Garcia an entirely separate deal as they attempted to keep a rein on expectation and Rafael Benitez refused to bracket himself among the big spenders. At least there is consensus between the clubs on the precious value of "El Nino".

Having carried the torch for six years at Atletico, Torres has shown in only 14 appearances for Liverpool that he can help Steven Gerrard carry the weight of their mammoth ambitions. For 81 minutes on Saturday Benitez's team selection was not the only thing about Liverpool that looked unchanged as they again laboured against resilient opposition on home soil.

Then the Spanish international carved his eighth Liverpool goal from nothing and everything appeared to change. "In recent years we have controlled a lot of these kind of games without scoring enough goals," said the Liverpool manager, who kept a straight face as he claimed his entire strike force were capable of producing Torres' beautiful finish. "We bought Fernando with the idea of turning these draws into three points."

The sight of Jose Reina running the length of the pitch to celebrate with Torres reflected the dilemma that had faced Liverpool against an obstinate Fulham. The goalkeeper created the breakthrough with a deliberate 80-yard assist rather than a hopeful punt. The outfield players, though dominant, had failed to find the same penetration.

"Reina is a goalkeeper with real game intelligence. He can play these passes to strikers if the strikers move for the ball," said his manager. "A modern goalkeeper needs to be able to read the game like this. That is the difference. You can save, save, save 100 balls but, if you don't do something more, you will be a good goalkeeper but not a top-class goalkeeper." Gerrard agreed: "Pepe doesn't just kick it upfield, he passes it out at the back."

Peter Crouch, Yossi Benayoun and Andriy Voronin all threatened in a contest that appeared to unfold in slow-motion until Torres entered to thunderous acclaim and provided the pace that a tiring Fulham dreaded.

"They brought on €57.2 million worth of players. Not bad is it?" rued a deflated Lawrie Sanchez. "There should be a transfer cap on how much you are allowed to bring off the bench." Benitez must hope the Uefa president, Michel Platini, does not follow the Fulham manager's advice.

Five moments of class transformed Liverpool's evening - each of the touches Torres required to trap Reina's ball, step inside Aaron Hughes and wrong-foot Antti Niemi after Dejan Stefanovic had failed to intercept.

Fulham had cause to dispute the penalty that presented Gerrard with his fifth goal in six games, Carlos Bocanegra clipping Crouch centimetres outside the box, but the result was certain the moment the Spaniard struck.

"These are the games and wins that get you back in the title race," said Liverpool's captain. "Chelsea won two titles in succession by not playing well against teams like this but they still won 1-0. That's what we have to get into the habit of doing."

Benitez said afterwards: "With Torres' quality, and (Ryan) Babel the same, that was the difference. I have the problem of leaving top players in the stand or putting them on the bench. But it is a good problem, Fernando came on and scored a fine goal.

"But Fernando's job is to score goals, I only said 'well done' to the whole team, they are all the same."

He added: "If we want to be contenders, we must win many games in a row. Fernando's goal was very good, real quality. But when we signed him we knew he can do things like this. It is what you expect from a player of his value."

• Guardian Service