A Liverpool supporter on local radio was discussing his club’s new stadium plans. “It doesn’t matter if they are downgraded,” he said. “Everyone’s building new stadiums these days. The more unique you make yours, the less unique it is.” Logic, in football, is not always easily found. Liverpool, after three successive defeats, were supposed to find it difficult against the team with the Premier League’s best away record.

Instead it was a Spanish stroll towards three points. Fernando Torres, an effortless destroyer, was removed after scoring twice, ostensibly to take an ovation from The Kop but perhaps also because Rafa Benitez was full of the goodwill spirit and wished to spare Harry Redknapp worse punishment.

Liverpool gained a quick 2-0 lead on the back of Torres’s penetrative running and when Benjani Mwaruwari scored early in the second half, El Niño soon quashed thoughts of a turnaround. His first goal came when Javier Mascherano, who would have been man-of-the-match in most other circumstances, fed a ball forward and the speed of Benitez’s substitute, Ryan Babel, had Hermann Hreidarsson lunging in desperation to cut the pass out. He knocked it straight to Torres who, with David James stranded, bypassed a thicket of players by sidefooting the ball round them into the corner of the net. It was a nice finish but his next was even better. Jamie Carragher lobbed forward for Steven Gerrard to nod the ball back to the edge of the area, from where Torres volleyed past James with his left foot. Nearing the season’s halfway point the striker, with 14 goals, is on course to be the first Liverpool player to score 30 goals in a campaign since Robbie Fowler in the mid-1990s.

Sol Campbell had been complaining about the abuse fans direct at players and took some terrible stick at Anfield, but only from Torres. Competing against laser-quick strikers who are full of coltish strength and callow enthusiasm is a young man’s game, and Campbell is at the age where receiving socks among the Christmas presents stops feeling anti-climactic and is appreciated for its practicality.

From the point of view of a mid-thirtysomething, facing Torres was as welcome as finding something bright and skin-tight beneath the wrapping paper instead. Torres stretched Portsmouth in the channels between their centre-backs and their full-backs but no matter which side he scampered down he always seemed to isolate Campbell rather than the much pacier Sylvain Distin. Liverpool had already made a strong beginning, with Harry Kewell skimming a shot close, when Torres caused major trouble for the first time, flashing forward to square to Dirk Kuyt, who looked certain to beat James before Glen Johnson made a saving tackle.

Johnson injured himself by colliding with James and went off to receive treatment. Torres offered further evidence of his perceptiveness by targeting the area Johnson would have been defending. He was ready, there, to receive a clever pass from Kewell and drive into Portsmouth’s box, twinkling past poor Campbell and drawing in Distin, who made a tackle. The ball ran to Kewell, who picked out Benayoun to angle a lovely volley beyond James using the outside of his right boot. 1-0.

Mascherano cut out Sulley Muntari’s pass and the ball cannoned straight to Kuyt, who fed Torres and Pompey were stretched again. Inside the box Torres looked to twist past Campbell and the former England man was unlucky, throwing in a foot to make the tackle only to knock the ball against Distin’s shins. It pinged past James; 2-0. Yet another Torres break gave Gerrard a shooting chance; he drove the ball close, but wide. Benayoun tricked his way forward and hit the side netting.

Portsmouth, their three in midfield outdone by Liverpool’s two, were resorting to illegalities; first Papa Bouba Diop and then Hreidarsson were booked. Only in the last 10 minutes of the first half, when Liverpool slacked off, did they threaten, Dioup and Pedro Mendes striking reasonable shots, but Jose Reina remained untroubled.

Portsmouth’s record had not lied, however. Six consecutive away wins spoke of a squad that believes in itself and can call on quality when cornered. Redknapp seized on the game’s slight change in momentum to bring on Kanu at half-time and with Portsmouth beginning to use the flanks more and finally worrying Liverpool, a near miss by Diop was a warning that went unheeded.

Then, in the 56th minute, Kanu picked up possession on the left and crossed expertly to Mwaruwari, who stepped past Liverpool defender John Arne Riise and beat Reina with precision.

Benitez confessed to being “a little bit nervous” during the 10 minutes when the score was 2-1, but having a player as good as Torres is soothing. “It was not just about Fernando, the whole team played well today,” Benitez said, and he was right in one way and wrong in another.

Liverpool did play well but top footballers are those who make a difference. Redknapp admitted Portsmouth “were all over the place” at times and partly blamed it on the fact their training ground was frozen on Thursday and Friday, and he was not able to do any tactical drills. But he admitted the experience had been sobering. “Torres is a top four player and the top four are still on a different level to the rest of us,” Redknapp said.

Star man: Fernando Torres (Liverpool)

Player ratings

Liverpool: Reina 6, Arbeloa 6, Hyypia 7, Carragher 7, Riise 6, Benayoun 6 (Babel 64min), Gerrard 7, Mascherano 8, Kewell 7 (Aurelio 76min), Torres 9 (Lucas 86min), Kuyt 6

Portsmouth: James 6, Johnson 6 (Lauren ht, 5), Campbell 5, Distin 6, Hreidarsson 6, Muntari 6 (Taylor 73min), Mendes 5, Diop 5, Kranjcar 4, Utaka 4 (Kanu ht, 7), Mwaruwari 7

Scorers: Liverpool: Benayoun 13, Distin og 16, Torres 67, 85

Portsmouth: Mwaruwari 57