The England international, who was signed from Everton in the summer, has so far cost the Londoners around £8million with various add-on clauses yet to be triggered.

And that has prompted Hodgson to make favourable comparisons with Liverpool's Fernando Torres ahead of tomorrow's trip to Anfield, which is expected to mark the Spain international's return from injury.

Hodgson said: "It's not a gamble to sign a player with such a proven track record. Fernando Torres was coveted for several years by teams playing all over Europe before Liverpool agreed to pay the enormous transfer fee that Atletico Madrid wanted.

"With Andy Johnson it's the same. Players of quality don't lose that overnight because they have two or three games without scoring a goal.

"We signed him for a 38-game season, not a three-game season. He came to us not having had a pre-season and it took a few more weeks before he was fit enough to play.

"Then we threw him straight into the team and I don't think it was surprising it took him a few matches to score a goal. We had no doubts whatsoever that he would score goals and he would help the team. Johnson works very hard.

"And what is a lot of money these days? The amount we spent on him is about the same as Manchester United's valuation of Frazier Campbell, who is 19 and just about to play.

"It was nothing like the valuation of Torres, Robbie Keane, Roman Pavlyuchenko or Emmanuel Adebayor; £8million with maybe a couple of million more if he does this and that and we do the other is not a big transfer fee in today's market.

"What sort of players are being transferred for that sort of money? We get recommended players from Switzerland, Scandinavia, Austria, Norway and Belarus and these aren't countries whose football rings a big bell yet we are being quoted prices of £8-10million.

"Andy Johnson represents very good value as a player who over the years has proven he can do the job at Premier League level. How much did Pavlyuchenko cost (Tottenham)? He was on the bench last week."

Fulham have never won at Anfield but will kick-off in a top-10 position after home wins over Newcastle and Tottenham.

Hodgson said: "Three in a row at any time in this league is fantastic.

"If we ignore those four teams where relegation is unthinkable, the rest of us from Aston Villa downwards believe that if we can get three wins in a row then a large part of our work is done because we have broken the back of where we want to be.

"It's a tall order and a big ask for the players to go to Liverpool and get that third win but for Fulham to get three wins in a row, one of them would have to be against a team that nobody has given us a chance of beating."