Here are a couple of Friday afternoon questions for you:

• Should Fernando Torres be an automatic choice?
• Which means more to Liverpool — the Premier League or the Champions League?

Rafa Benitez made it pretty clear where he stands on the first of them after Torres scored a hat-trick in Tuesday’s 4-2 win over Reading, earning comparisons with Ian Rush from Steven Gerrard and with Thierry Henry from Caught Offside.

“If you say to me that Dirk Kuyt is a worse striker or Peter Crouch is a worse striker or Andriy Voronin is a worse striker then I would play Torres every game,” Benitez said. ”But because we have very good strikers, I like to choose the strikers for every game and if it is necessary to change I will change.”

Even given the nature of Tuesday’s opposition, would Kuyt, Crouch or Voronin have scored such a sublime hat-trick? Many fans might doubt it.

The first goal featured a blend of strength and skill as he held off a defender and then stroked the ball into the far corner of the net. Many strikers with less poise would have blasted high and wide.

As for question number two, for all Liverpool’s European pedigree, given the choice, many fans might prefer the league title, a first since 1990, rather than the Champions League. Torres could well be the man to fulfil those ambitions — if Benitez plays him.
 
Liverpool stand fourth in the league, four points off leaders Arsenal and really need victory from Saturday’s trip to Wigan.

Torres has to start, doesn’t he?

Dave Thompson

Arsenal fans peering down from the top of the Premier League could be forgiven for asking who needs Thierry Henry.

His 16 million pound move to Barcelona put money in the club coffers and their firepower on the pitch seems undimmed, judging by the 5-0 demolition of Derby on Saturday.

Fifteen goals in the first six league games hardly suggest Henry is being missed and the 3-0 win over Sevilla last week validated Champions League ambitions. Henry himself has been impressed, while Jason Pereira at Soccerlens wonders whether they might be the world’s best team to watch.

Talents such as Emmanuel Adebayor and Cesc Fabregas continue to blossom and revenues at the new 60,000 seater Emirates Stadium now yield an astonishing 3.5 million pounds per-match — double the amount generated at Highbury.

The power-wrangling will continue behind the scenes but there is little sign of that affecting what happens on field, as Arsenal continue to turn their attractive, free-flow style into goals — something that was not a given in Henry’s time at the club.

The only nagging doubt for supporters will be whether it can all last. Fabregas says Henry’s departure helped young players like himself blossom, but when it comes down to the end of the season could they be short of the sort of experience that gets you over the line. What do you think, Arsenal fans?

Dave Thompson, London

Photo: Fabregas celebrates after scoring against Sevilla in the Champions League. Dylan Martinez / Reuters