Liverpool 2 Stoke City 0

LUIS SUAREZ scored on his debut as Liverpool concluded a turbulent few days with a valuable victory over Stoke.

The Uruguayan slotted home the Reds’ second goal in front of the Kop to ensure Fernando Torres’ £50m move to Chelsea was no longer the major talking point.

If questions were being asked about how the Reds would cope in their former striker’s absence then efforts by Suarez and Portugal midfielder Raul Meireles provided a swift answer.

Record £35m signing Andy Carroll’s introduction to the crowd before kick-off was the closest he is likely to get to the pitch for a month as he recovers from a thigh injury.

Unfortunately for Liverpool this was exactly the sort of game from which they would have benefited from the 6ft 3in powerhouse striker.

The ball spent much of the first half in the air, which benefited Stoke far more than it did their hosts, and as a result Dirk Kuyt found his role as lone frontman a frustrating one at times.

Saying that, he had at least three chances of which at least one would probably have been converted by Torres.

Within two minutes of the second half resuming Salif Diao was booked for bringing down the advancing Daniel Agger and from the resulting free-kick Liverpool took the lead.

Steven Gerrard’s low, driven free-kick deflected off Marc Wilson on the end of the wall to Kyrgiakos 12 yards out and although Robert Huth nicked the ball off the defender Meireles was on hand to smash home left-footed.

The second came after Kuyt’s through-ball sent Suarez racing through and having gone round Begovic he rolled the ball goalwards.

It appeared Andy Wilkinson would cut out the shot but his desperate clearance came back off the post and bounced over the line.