Rafa Benitez says historic Liverpool win sends out title warning

And with managerless Portsmouth due at Anfield on Wednesday, the Spaniard is keen to ensure his squad's feet remain firmly rooted to the ground.

"We have the belief and the mentality we need to fight against the top sides or anyone else," said Benitez. "The win here was really difficult for everybody, so to win and stay unbeaten is a massive message for the other teams.

"But it's just one step forward. If you want to be contenders then you need to approach every game thinking to win.

"We have to come down and start thinking about Portsmouth. We knew it was important to beat United but we then went and drew with Stoke. If you want to be at the top of the table then you need to win nearly every game.

"But the fans have to enjoy it. They were behind us and were supporting us, and for them it was a fantastic day and for everyone at the club."

Not even a fire alarm during his post-match briefing could prevent Benitez from getting his message across.

Yesterday's win was Liverpool's first at one of their 'big four' rivals since the Spaniard assumed charge in the summer of 2004.

And Benitez added: "Everybody was talking about the statistics against the top sides beforehand, and we knew we needed to improve.

"Chelsea were unbeaten here for a long time, so we knew it would be a massive game.

"To come here and show the right mentality and character to win will be a big boost for the rest of the season.

"We have belief, we have quality and we have shown in coming from behind in previous games that we have character.

"That's enough to be title contenders and enough to be top of the table now.

"It was important for everyone at the club to show that we can do it.

"We can do it here or go to any stadium and do a good job.

"I must give credit to the players, they were really, really good. We have good players with quality who work hard, and those are the qualities of a winning team."

Liverpool, who won only their second game at Stamford Bridge since 1990, became the first team to prevent Chelsea from scoring in the league since their last visit in February.

Led by man-of-the-match Jamie Carragher, a fine defensive display restricted Chelsea - who had thrashed Middlesbrough 5-0 the previous week - to few opportunities.

"We played a very good team, a very offensive team," said Benitez. "They had a lot of possession but we were more or less controlling the game and had chances.

"We showed we weren't just thinking about defending. We were thinking about how to win. The commitment and work-rate of the players was to win.

"Chelsea had some opportunities when the final pass wasn't the best but we had our chances and that's the key - to keep going and have the mentality that we can score the second.

"Because Chelsea were losing, they had to go forward and that meant we had more space and we defended really well as a team. In other games Chelsea have had three or four clear chances and today I didn't see too many from them."

Benitez also revealed that Fernando Torres, who has missed the last three games with a hamstring problem, could also sit out Wednesday's visit of Portsmouth and the trip to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.

Robbie Keane could also be out of the Portsmouth game due to a recurrence of the groin strain which forced him off after an hour yesterday.