Steven Gerrard: We must be humble in race for title

Gerrard said: "It is important to be humble now and not get carried away.

"We have got a big game on Wednesday in Europe and then another vital match against Manchester City on Sunday. It is important no-one gets carried away.

"There's a long way to go and we realise how tough it is going to be to still be in the hunt come the end of the campaign, so we need to keep going. But we have set a standard that we need to match week-in, week-out."

Gerrard wants to see Liverpool perform on a regular basis to the level that saw them outplay Everton.

He said: "The victory was probably our best performance of the season.

"We had been winning games but stumbling along, but this has set the standard now and if we can continue that level then we will certainly be there or thereabouts come the end of the season.

"We controlled the game all the way through. It was a statement of our intentions.

"We were together, played some terrific football and the performance showed how frustrated we were not to take maximum points from Stoke the previous weekend."

Striker Fernando Torres has spent the opening weeks of the campaign shaking off the effects of a summer which saw him win the European Championship with Spain.

He has shown little of the form that produced 33 goals last season, but Gerrard believes the front man is finding something like that level, even if it took a booking and an exchange with referee Mike Riley over his treatment from defenders and officials alike before he sparked into action.

The Spaniard had managed only one goal previously this term.

Gerrard said: "It was only a matter of time.

"You cannot keep strikers with his talent down for long because they are not going to go long without a goal. It was going to happen.

"He was a bit frustrated, but then Robbie Keane has put one on a plate for him and the second one was typical Torres.

"He made a lot of space for himself in the box and the finish was deadly."

Torres admitted: "I have been working very hard and knew the goals would come."

Meanwhile, Gerrard is still searching for his 100th goal for the club, but said: "It will come, I'm confident of that. The most important thing was the win and it was all about the team.

"As a local lad these are the most difficult games to prepare for.

"The nerves start and you can't wait for the game to come about, so the fear of losing these games takes up a lot of energy beforehand."