The scriptwriters guild joined the process of erasing Fernando Torres from Liverpool's consciousness tonight. It had begun with the £57.8m outlay on his replacements on Monday night and was accelerated against Stoke when Luis Suárez emerged from the substitutes bench to seal victory on his Anfield debut. Even the new Liverpool No7's name scanned into the song that was once reserved for the man from Madrid.

Suárez, the £22.8m signing from Ajax, had only been on the pitch 16 minutes when he latched on to Dirk Kuyt's through-ball, rounded Asmir Begovic in the Stoke City goal and rolled his shot into the Kop net. That Andy Wilkinson, the Stoke defender, made a vain attempt to clear on the goal-line and succeeded only in converting in off his own post was dismissed as inconsequential. Suárez, quick and alert in the penalty box, was granted the dream start for a shot that was goalbound anyhow, and who in their right mind was really going to take that from him?

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