Steven Gerrard believes Liverpool's hard-fought win at West Ham United demonstrated they have the "class, skill and steel" required to lift the Premier League title.

The Liverpool captain scored two penalties at Upton Park on Sunday to return Brendan Rodgers' team to the top of the league and overtake Kenny Dalglish on the club's scoring chart with 173 career goals. Liverpool have now won nine consecutive league matches and five more, beginning with Sunday's key contest against Manchester City at Anfield, would end the club's 24-year wait for a 19th league championship.

Gerrard admits Liverpool's reaction to West Ham's controversial equaliser shortly before half-time was the mark of a team's impressive mentality. And he identified the second-half introduction of Lucas Leiva, who played in Jon Flanagan for Liverpool's second penalty of the game, as confirmation the squad has "a bit of everything" needed to become champions.

"Lucas deserves a special mention," said the Liverpool and England captain. "I think there was a lot of pressure on him – the Brazil coach was here to watch him. He hasn't played much of late but he's come back and worked his socks off to get fit. The ball he played for the second goal – people have been raving about (Philippe) Coutinho all year and the passes he has made – but for me, that was right up there with Brazil's best. I think that helped us go on and get the win.

"So it's great credit to Lucas and I think it shows that in this squad now we have a bit of everything – a bit of class, a bit of skill in Luis Suárez, Daniel Sturridge and Coutinho. But we've also got some steel. We have lads here who want to roll their sleeves up and dig in."

As for Liverpool's reaction to Guy Demel's equaliser, scored after Andy Carroll escaped with a foul on goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, Gerrard added: "I think if you go back a couple of years, you would have found a side that would have felt sorry for themselves and sulked and that would have affected them in the second half. But the manager was fantastic – he told us to forget about it and that there was nothing we could change. He asked us all for 10% more."

Gerrard's brace at West Ham took his tally for the season to 14 goals, with a remarkable 11 coming from the penalty spot. "Obviously the goal tally has been helped a lot by penalties but you've still got to have the nerve to step up and take it," said the 33-year-old.

"The second one was a very nerve-racking penalty. It was similar to the one against Fulham. It's hugely satisfying looking back on the game, especially with the equaliser going against us. It was a very tricky game coming up against a Sam Allardyce team, we knew what to expect and I think we got a bit more than we expected. It was a good test of our character. We needed to prove that we're capable of fighting for this title and I thought we did it terrifically well."