This was the sort of scoreline Liverpool might have envisaged posting rather more often when they spent nine-figure sums on the attacking talents of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz. Except that, as they scored five times in a league game for the first time since clinching the title by demolishing Tottenham, the two £100m men were absent, both injured.
They didn’t need the German’s creativity to be prolific, or the Swede’s speed. Rather, they may have underlined one of Arne Slot’s mantras. During their autumnal slump, the Liverpool head coach said that unlocking a defence often involved a moment of magic or a set-piece. Well as Hugo Ekitike and Dominik Szoboszlai played, Liverpool were not magical. But the team who were statistically the worst in the division at set-pieces in the first half of the season may now be officially the best. Directly or indirectly, they scored from three before the break.
