Second-half goals from Peter Crouch, Steven Gerrard and Dirk Kuyt propelled Liverpool into third place at Bolton's expense and, while Sam Allardyce expressed dissatisfaction afterwards at some of Benítez's pre-match comments, he had no argument about the result, claiming that he had “smelt it coming”.
The eye-catching quality of the goals, coupled with the paucity of Bolton's performance, heightened the feeling that Liverpool's class had told. Certainly Benítez appeared to see it that way, after his withering assessment of Bolton's tactics, but Allardyce felt it was more a case of his team's endeavours catching up with them as a run of five consecutive league wins was brought to an abrupt halt. “I wasn't happy with what he [Benítez] said and I don't know why he said it. You'll have to ask him,” a deflated Allardyce said afterwards. “But I don't think it made any difference to anything today. I just think it was a game too far for us over the Christmas period. We didn't get anything like the energy we needed to keep Liverpool out. They deserved to win.”
As he dissects his team's performance using his beloved ProZone programme, Allardyce will note a marked downturn in performance from players such as Iván Campo, Kevin Nolan and Gary Speed, as well as El-Hadji Diouf and Nicolas Anelka, who made little headway in attack.
Allardyce suggested that it was impossible to expect players to perform for a fourth time in ten days — “for me, that's not entertainment” — but, while Gerrard also talked of himself having been “really quiet in the second half”, some of his team-mates grew in stature.
One of them was Jermaine Pennant, who seems to have spent much of this season competing with Mark González for Anfield's Ineffectual Wing-Play Award (previous winners Jimmy Carter, Mark Kennedy and Vladimir Smicer). Pennant had an awful first half but he improved considerably after the break, having a hand in the first two goals and earning an unusually warm embrace from Gerrard as the captain left the pitch towards the end of the game.
Another was Kuyt. In goalscoring terms, the former Feyenoord forward has found the going considerably tougher in England than in the Netherlands, where he was prolific, but his enthusiasm, energy and unselfish approach have already made him an Anfield favourite. Having combined with Pennant in the build-up to the two previous goals, he fully deserved the plaudits that greeted his goal in the 83rd minute, having held off Ricardo Gardner to squeeze a low shot past Jussi Jaaskelainen.
And then, of course, there is Crouch, a figure whose endearing ability to laugh at himself — he suggested in the match programme that he may have been a giraffe in a previous life — is surpassed only by an ability to mix the sublime with the ridiculous on the pitch, which has raised doubts about his future at Anfield in recent weeks. Sometimes his overhead kicks do not come off, which, for a man with legs like knitting needles, can look embar rassing, as it did against Trinidad & Tobago in the World Cup finals; here, though, as against Galatasaray in the Champions League in September, the connection was perfect as he gave Liverpool the lead in the 61st minute from Pennant's cross.
Within two minutes it was 2-0, Gerrard timing his run perfectly to volley home from Kuyt's cross, and the game was over as a contest. Briefly Bolton lost all composure as Abdoulaye Faye, hitherto excellent at centre half, was so outraged by a free kick awarded against him that he jostled Graham Poll and then kicked the ball away in a further act of dissent. Technically they were two bookable offences, but Poll opted against a red card and it seemed as if Bolton had escaped any further punishment until Kuyt scored his goal with seven minutes remaining.