Carling Cup review: After courting criticism at the weekend for leaving Fernando Torres on the bench against Birmingham Rafael Benitez unleashed the striker on an unsuspecting Reading and the Spaniard delivered with a sublime hat-trick that sent Liverpool into the fourth round of the Carling Cup.

While Manchester City and Arsenal both edged through with narrow victories, goals were plentiful at the Madejski Stadium.

Yossi Benayoun broke his Liverpool duck with a goal of the highest quality, scoring past Adam Federici from distance in the 23rd minute.

Bobby Convey levelled four minutes but Torres made the most of his run-out by firing Liverpool back in front early in the second half after a neat through-ball from Argentinean Sebastian Leto.

John Halls equalised in the 64th minute but Torres put the Reds in front for a third time with another fabulous finish in the 71st minute, before converting a one-on-one for his hat-trick.

A youthful Arsenal side left it late to beat Newcastle at the Emirates Stadium.

In the first half Lukasz Fabianski produced a fine reaction stop from Obafemi Martins on his debut in the Arsenal goal while Nicklas Bendtner looked lively at the other end.

But the match was headed for extra-time until Bendtner's headed winner with eight minutes left and the impressive Denilson fired home an eye-catching second in the closing seconds.

David Nugent made amends for a glaring first-half miss by scoring to help Portsmouth to a 1-0 win at Burnley.

Nugent wasted a glorious chance to give Pompey the half-time advantage at Turf Moor when his attempted nutmeg of Clarets keeper Gabor Kiraly failed miserably.

However, Pompey made a breakthrough when Nugent scored after 69 minutes with a well taken goal and Harry Redknapp's side held on for victory.

Manchester City snatched a 1-0 win over Norwich at Eastlands in a turgid encounter.

Forgotten man Georgios Samaras, who has been out in the cold under Sven-Goran Eriksson until tonight, struck in the 90th minute to hand his side a barely-merited victory.

Defeat was hard to take for Coca-Cola Championship side Norwich who battled well against a lacklustre City side.