BENAYOUN: SEASON STARTS NOW

YOSSI BENAYOUN insisted Liverpool’s season starts here after last night’s 4-0 drubbing of Stoke City at Anfield.

Glen Johnson crowned his home debut with a man of the match performance, scoring a six-yard scissor-kick on the stroke of half time after Fernando Torres had opened his new season account inside five minutes.

Then in the second half Dirk Kuyt finished a sensational passing move in front of the Kop on 78 minutes before David Ngog came off the bench to net an injury time fourth for Rafa Benitez’s title chasers.

Benayoun believes the team performance was the ideal tonic to SundayĆ¢’s opening game defeat at White Hart Lane.

With Premier rivals Manchester United slipping up at Burnley, the Israeli international says confidence has gone back through the roof inside the Anfield dressing room.

‘It was very important for us to win our first game at home, especially after what happened at Tottenham,’ he said.

‘We never expected to lose that game and so it was very important for us to recover quick and get that win. We want to start our season now.

‘We were lucky that we had a quick game to recover from the Tottenham game, we did many things better especially in the second half and we well deserved the win.

‘We wanted it more tonight I think. We ran more, we pressed more, we worked harder. The first half at Tottenham they had the ball, the possession for large parts of the game.