Gerrard said: "I would obviously rather have played and not been suspended, but maybe a bit of a break has done me good.
"I feel a bit fresher. I got the ban and I accepted it and got on with things. It's one of those things which happens in football. The club has been very good to me and gave me two or three weeks to get away from it all and I'm feeling the benefit of that. Now I hope I'll be in good form for the rest of the season."
Gerrard felt that Thursday's victory over Auxerre was achieved through solidity and team-work - facets, he feels, that were the cornerstone of the Reds treble success of 2001.
He said: "We were very solid throughout the team and wanted to make sure we didn't give them any opportunities.
"I think we were very strong defensively. You have to give us some credit for keeping them quiet because I think they're a good team.
"The manager wanted us to have a very strong team block and we did. Maybe we could have created a few more chances, but we'd have settled for that result before the game.
"We could also have had a couple more goals. I thought Emile Heskey should have had a definite penalty when he was brought down by their goalkeeper.
"That's the way we played when we won the treble. We've shown we can go away from home to places like Roma and Barcelona in the past and shut them out before taking them at Anfield."