Highlights

• Fernando Torres was a prolific and creative striker for Liverpool, scoring many spectacular goals and providing countless assists for his teammates during his time at Anfield.
• Torres showcased his footballing IQ and quick thinking in a match against Sunderland in 2010, where he took advantage of a free-kick situation to create a goal for Dirk Kuyt.
• The goal was controversial and enraged Sunderland, but the Premier League authorities ruled that the goal was valid according to the Laws of the Game. Torres' clever play was ultimately rewarded.

Fernando Torres may have suffered a tumultuous time at Chelsea after joining the Blues from Liverpool in January 2011, but the Spanish striker was a revelation at Anfield in the years prior. A mix of pace and power, Torres remains one of the Merseyside club's finest strikers of the Premier League era to date.

Torres broke onto the English scene with an incredible debut season in the Premier League as the marksman netted 24 league goals in the 2007/08 campaign. The former Atlético Madrid star scored many a spectacular goal during his lucrative spell at Liverpool. Whether it was his stunning volley against Blackburn Rovers or solo strikes in Chelsea games, 'El Nino' came up with the goods on countless occasions in the famous red jersey between 2007 and 2011.

However, it's one of Torres' assists on Merseyside that we're looking at here because the Spaniard's ingenuity in 2010 created one of the Premier League's cheekiest goals of all time. His goalscoring prowess at Anfield often saw his creativity overlooked, but the Spaniard was able to register 20 assists for his teammates, including two against Sunderland in September 2010.

Liverpool 2-2 Sunderland (2010)

Cast your minds back, if you dare, to the heady days of the 2010/11 season when the Reds were flirting with spells in the relegation zone under Roy Hodgson's management and on the back of a disastrous summer of spending. Players such as Milan Jovanovic, Christian Poulsen, and Paul Konchesky had struggled to hit the ground running at Anfield - to say the least - and Hodgson was already coming under intense scrutiny despite only just taking over from Rafael Benitez in the dug-out a few months earlier.

It's September 25 and Liverpool, staggeringly, find themselves in 16th place having won just one of their opening five Premier League games as Steve Bruce's Sunderland make the trip to Anfield. An embarrassing home defeat against Northampton Town during the prior midweek has seen Liverpool knocked out of the League Cup, adding to the already mounting issues at the club in the early stages of the 2010/11 season.

Those woes would not end in this home clash against the Black Cats despite the Reds taking a 1-0 lead thanks to Dutch forward, Dirk Kuyt, after some good work by Torres - but more on that soon. Darren Bent drew the visitors level from the penalty spot after the aforementioned Poulsen had handled the ball inside the 18-yard box. The confidence this instilled in Sunderland was momentous in the game as Hodgson's side looked to be sheepish and lacking in any self-confidence.

Bent then gave his side a surprise lead with a bullet header in the second half of proceedings, leaving Liverpool with an uphill task to rescue a point at their own ground. Torres was once again the provider as his cross was met by the head of captain fantastic - Steven Gerrard - to salvage a draw for Hodgson. It was ultimately another very poor result for the Merseyside club. The highlight of the game for the hosts was a brilliant piece of quick thinking by their beloved number nine.

Torres shows brilliant initiative

Kuyt's early goal gave his side the lead after just five minutes in truly bizarre circumstances, but thanks in no small part to the footballing IQ and quick thinking of the Dutchman's striker partner, Torres. The Spanish forward had become a thorn in the side of Sunderland as the Liverpool forward scored an incredible goal earlier in 2010 against the north east club.

When Sunderland were given a free-kick in their own half during the opening exchanges, defender Michael Turner sought to allow Simon Mignolet - who would go on to represent Liverpool three years later - to take the set-piece by nonchalantly back-heeling the ball and walking away. The centre-back was under the impression that he hadn't taken the set piece when he stepped forward, but he was unfortunately very wrong.

With the ball having been static at the time of the play, Torres proceeded to run clear through on goal in the hope that the referee would deem that the free-kick had been taken. This is the sort of quick thinking and awareness that can separate a very good striker from a great one. Not many would have had the wherewithal and foresight to even attempt to make this move.

One of the Premier League's cheekiest ever goals

And after a few confusing seconds where both Torres and Mignolet glanced and glanced again at the match officials, the Liverpool forward slipped the ball to Dirk Kuyt to tap into an open net. Naturally, the Black Cats were outraged at what had gone down as Turner wasn't intending to take the free-kick, but a quick conversation between Stuart Attwell and his linesman later and Liverpool were awarded the goal. So be sure to relive what can comfortably be considered one of the strangest goals that the Premier League has ever seen, down below (1.07 on the video):

Very canny, Fernando; good thinking. It was, at the time, viewed as the little bit of luck that Liverpool needed to get their season underway and while that didn't quite prove to be the case, it did indeed prevent them from falling to yet another embarrassing defeat.

This isn't the first controversial goal to have occurred and been allowed to stand in a fixture involving Liverpool and Sunderland either, as Bent scored the winner as the Black Cats saw off the Reds in a 1-0 victory at the Stadium of Light in 2009 thanks to the now infamous beach ball goal.

Sunderland reacted angrily

And they couldn't really complain when you consider just how furious Sunderland understandably were with the decision as Bruce raged after the game: "For me, it's unjust, it's unsportsmanlike. It is not in the rules of the game, and they have capitalised on it. Everybody in the ground - including most of the Liverpool team - knew Turner didn't take the free-kick. He was passing it back to the goalkeeper to take the free-kick from where it should have been taken from."

Meanwhile, Turner himself chipped in by explaining: "I've told the keeper to come out and rolled it back to him. The ref hasn't blown, they put it in the net. It's bitterly disappointing."

Was the right decision made?

But despite their protests, the Premier League’s Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) board ruled that the correct decision had indeed been made. Their statement at the time read as follows: “According to the Laws of the Game, having stopped the game for any infringement the referee is required to ‘indicate the restart of the match’.

“In practice, in the majority of cases, referees indicate for the restart by gesturing to players to take the kick. These gestures can be minimal... there is no requirement by Law to use the whistle to make the indication. The ball is then in play when it is kicked and moves. So, in this case, the ball was in play as soon as it was kicked by a Sunderland player.” In other words, it really was next-level intelligence from Torres. Fair play.

The season still ended up being a disappointing one as Liverpool ended the 2010/11 campaign in sixth place, with Hodgson only making it halfway through the season before being sacked and replaced by club icon, Sir Kenny Dalglish in the Anfield hot-seat. It may have been a disappointing season on the pitch for the Reds, but off the pitch, the club were taken over by Fenway Sports Group and this marks the very beginning of the eventual upturn in fortunes for the club.

Cristiano Ronaldo denied a similar goal vs Newcastle

More than a decade after this incident, a very similar situation reared its head. This time another world-class forward was involved, Cristiano Ronaldo. In a Premier League clash between Manchester United and Newcastle at Old Trafford, a free-kick was awarded to the away side on the edge of their own box, when a touch reminiscent to that of Turner against Liverpool was made by Fabian Schar.

The Magpies' defender knocked the ball back to his goalkeeper, Nick Pope, to take the free-kick. With the ball being static when the Swiss international kicked the ball, it should have been classed as in-play if going by the same rules as the Kuyt goal 12 years earlier. The ball was at the feet of the English goalkeeper when Ronaldo swiftly nipped in to take it off his toes and slot into an empty net with his left foot. Instead of celebrating his goal, the Portuguese forward ran straight to the referee to point out that Schar had actually played the ball back to Pope.

On this occasion, the quick-thinking of the forward was not rewarded as the goal was ruled out, to the fury of the Man United players. Erik ten Hag was visibly unimpressed when asked about the incident after the game, as the Dutch boss said: "I don't have a comment, everyone has seen it. I shared that with them."

It throws into question whether the Kuyt goal would have been awarded in 2010 had VAR been available to the officials on the day, but nonetheless, the Reds benefitted from the exact same situation their rivals - Man United - suffered from.