A quick word with John Terry, Ashley Cole and Co would soon back that up after the Liverpool hitman tore them to shreds - and blew the title race wide open into the bargain.
At this rate all those body-language experts who have been so quick to put the boot in are soon going to be out of business!
A week ago, Hodgson found himself having to defend Europe's deadliest finisher once again after a toothless show at the Reebok.
While the world and his dog were jumping on the Torres bandwagon, Kop boss Hodgson was adamant the Reds golden boy was close to hitting top form.
Well, if the last laugh is indeed the loudest, you would have heard the guffaws from the manager's office echoing all the way across Stanley Park last night.
Rivalled only, in fact, by the bellows of delight along the M62 as Alex Ferguson raised a glass of the finest red in honour of his fiercest rivals.
If the Manchester United chief was already on Cloud Nine at Arsenal's defeat, it will take a week to get his feet back on the ground after Chelsea followed suit.
Yes, the champions were indeed truly awful as they lost it in the first half. But that was more down to Liverpool's own magnificence than their own clangers.
And tormentor in chief, as he has been so often against them in the past, was Torres, with two finishes that stuck two fingers in the face of all those hinting he was on skid row.
Strike one came after only 11 minutes, with a goal that had Carlo Ancelotti tearing his hair out at its simplicity.
Dirk Kuyt's long crossfield ball drifted over the head of Terry, and Torres - after taking one touch to control - slipped it easily past Petr Cech.
It certainly brought a smile to the face of John W Henry in the directors' box - although co-owner Tom Werner had to rely on TV replays after getting to his seat 60 seconds after the opener.
Strike two came bang on half-time, with a sublime strike as good as you will see here all season.
The fact it arrived courtesy of a Cole cock-up only heightened the pleasure for Kopites. Heightened it, in fact, for just about everyone outside of Chelsea.
The England left-back slipped as he meandered into midfield, Lucas fed Torres and the Spaniard took one step to his right before unleashing an unstoppable shot into the far corner.
And that was effectively game, set and match even before they had taken a sip of the half-time cuppa - certainly the way Chelsea had played.
Outrun, outbattled and out-thought in just about every area of the pitch - but in midfield in particular. Brazilian workhorse Lucas - so often the butt of cruel jokes in his Anfield career - was only a gnat's you-know-what behind Torres with a magnificent display.
Yet naturally the Spaniard's heroics stole the show - and continued his own devastating record against the Blues as he did so.
Eight times the striker has lined up against them and six times he has found the net. If, as the mischief-makers have suggested, the Kop hotshot would eventually like to chance his arm at Stamford Bridge, he could hardly have written a better application.
But really this was far, far more than a one-man show.
There were 11 heroes in red and not far short of the same number of headless and weak chickens in blue.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
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