Still unbeaten in the league this term, Liverpool have now won five on the trot and scored 21 goals in that spell.

After watching Sami Hyypia, Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard and Ryan Babel grab the goals that finally deflated Bolton Benitez said: “The team is playing well, we are making plenty of chances and scored four, but it could have been many more. I must be pleased with form like this.

“It is important for us to see the goals shared around, if one player can get 20 and nobody else scores, it is easier for teams to stop a team.

“But we are making it very difficult for our opponents now, we are in good form and I am very confident that we can maintain this in the second half of the season.

“But we can still improve, I believe that. We have quality, plenty of options and the opportunity to bring on fresh legs late in matches.”

Bolton boss Gary Megson conceded this defeat was a bitter blow, coming after his side had beaten champions Manchester United a week earlier.

He said: “I can’t dress it up, this has brought us back down to earth.

“We did not play well and we did not compete in the way we did against Manchester United.

“We have to make sure we do the things we do best, and we certainly did not match the standards we set ourselves against United.

“Maybe the turning point was when Nicholas Anelka missed that chance when we were 1-0 down.

“That is not like him, but it is very rare that he makes a mistake like this so I will not blame him for that.

“We had conceded a bad goal from our point of view, a header in the box, and we did not have people in that area who should have defended it.

“Their penalty was a soft one; if you start giving them for things like that there will be three or four penalties a game.

“But this result will not change the things we will be doing here – playing to our strengths and bringing the sort of people into the club who can help us.”