The England forward marked his return from injury with a superb treble against the Gunners and his manager was quick to hail his efforts.

"Crouch hadn't played for 20 days because of his nose operation and he was desperate to play and score goals. All of his goals were fantastic," Benitez told the club's official site.

The victory preserved the pride of the Reds whose supporters were desperate for a revenge of the 3-1 and 6-3 embarrassing cup defeats at the hands of Arsenal this season.

"It was a really good team performance and we wanted to give our supporters something special today."

On the other hand, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger blasted his backline for their inability to deal with man of the match Crouch.

"Defensively our performance was horrendous, the difference was Crouch, and we just did not handle him at all," Wenger told the post-match press conference.

"He was the big difference. We could not cope with him in the air and his three goals all came from crosses from wide areas.

"He made fine runs and we never got close enough to him, and with Steven Gerrard also finding gaps between our defenders, Liverpool more than deserved to win."