The celebrations from the Liverpool players - and the away end they stood in front of at full-time - said it all. Jurgen Klopp's white flags remain below deck. There will be no surrendering to Manchester City yet. Not here.
An exhausted, elated set of players soaked up the applause from the few thousand followers stashed away in the far corner of Villa Park as they recorded a big three points that took them level at the summit once more.
If all that is left for Liverpool to do is win and pray where their title hopes are concerned, then the first part of that directive was achieved here at Villa Park.
