LONDON (AP):

FERNANDO TORRES and Steven Gerrard scored two goals in the last nine minutes and Liverpool beat Fulham 2-0 yesterday to climb to fourth place in the Premier League.

Rafa Benitez' team laboured for most of the game at Anfield, unable to match the performance in Tuesday's 8-0 Champions League crushing of Turkish club Besiktas. But Torres collected a huge clearance from Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, dribbled into the area and shot past Fulham's Antti Niemi in the 81st.

Four minutes later, Fulham's American defender Carlos Bocanegra tripped Peter Crouch inside the area and Gerrard converted the penalty.

The victory means Liverpool has 24 points from six victories and six draws. That's three points fewer than Arsenal and Manchester United, while Manchester City have 25.

Lee Bowyer scored twice and West Ham romped to a 5-0 victory at Derby to keep the Rams in last place, while Sunderland and New-castle drew 1-1 in yesterday's other Premier League game.

great victory

Matthew Etherington and Nolberto Solano also scored at Pride Park. The third goal came on a shot by American defender Jonathan Spector which went in off countryman Eddie Lewis, a Derby midfielder.

While West Ham moved up two places to ninth, the result left Derby with only six points from 13 games and with a goal differential of minus 26.

"A crazy 10-15 minutes cost us dearly and, at the end, it was men against boys," said Derby manager Billy Davies, who was without several first choice players through injury.

"That is not an excuse. The excuse is that in the first 20 minutes we had opportunities to take the lead. We still had enough quality on that pitch to pick up points but it wasn't to be."

Today's games are: Birmingham vs. Aston Villa, Bolton vs. Middlesbrough, Chelsea vs. Everton, Manchester United vs. Blackburn, Portsmouth vs. Manchester City and Tottenham vs. Wigan.

Tomorrow, Arsenal, who lead the standings on goals scored ahead of Manchester United, visit Reading.