Liverpool FC boss Rafa Benitez: We can handle life at top of Premier League

While admitting there remains much room for improvement, Benitez reckons the victory has demonstrated his side can handle the pressure of being league leaders.

And the Liverpool manager believes the forthcoming hectic festive schedule will determine whether they are constructing a genuine championship challenge.

"I think the message for the rest of the team is that we can still be there at the top," said Benitez. "That is important for the confidence of the side. If we play well and know what to do then we can win games, it is just a question of time sometimes. We need to keep doing the right things.

"Sometimes a win like this can change the confidence. I think it was important to score three goals.

"For me, we are still not playing at our level, we can play better. It is important for the rest of the season to see players not playing well but the team still winning. If you know the players then you know Mascherano can improve a little bit, Gerrard can improve a little bit, you know that Riera, Keane, Torres can all improve.

"That makes me confident we can stay in the race. Christmas time is a crucial period and if we can keep the team at the top of the table at the end of December why not?"

Benitez added: "We might not have experience in winning the Premier League, but we have players who have won things like the Champions League.

"Mascherano has won things with River Plate and there is Sammy Lee and Mauricio Pellegrino on the backroom staff who have won a lot of trophies."

Liverpool had scored just 13 goals in their previous 11 games before Saturday's visit to Ewood Park, and they again struggled to find a cutting edge until Alonso's 69th-minute opener.

Benitez admitted last week that his players were suffering a crisis of confidence in front of goal, and the visitors were worryingly ineffectual during a dismal first half.

But the Spaniard said: "I wasn't worried after an hour. I had confidence because I knew that we were passing and controlling the game. It could have been a problem if they were attacking and creating chances, but they were not really doing that.

"For me, it was just a question of time. We just needed to change a little bit and also to change the mentality of the players in front.

"We wanted the strikers to go forward more. We wanted Steven to run more into the channels, both Gerrard and Alonso had to be a little higher than Mascherano.

"In previous games we were using more energy to get points, here we were in control and tried to be in good positions. I don't think this was more physically demanding than other games."

Summer signings Andrea Dossena, Albert Riera and Robbie Keane were all dropped to the bench at the weekend, but Benitez believes they will all contribute in the coming weeks.

"That is why when I talk about plenty of room for improvement," he said. "We have some players we know that can play a little bit better or Torres, Skrtel, Aurelio to come back and we can keep the team sharp."

Liverpool fly out to Holland this morning for their final Champions League group game against PSV Eindhoven with doubts over the fitness of Javier Mascherano and Dirk Kuyt.

Mascherano was substituted late on after suffering a dead leg while Kuyt ended the game with a hamstring problem.