If this fresh Mersey afternoon will always be about Mohamed Salah and another remarkable goalscoring achievement, then another milestone was quietly reached, to announce another arrival amongst the greats.
Salah is that, without a doubt. In becoming only the 10th player to score 150 goals in Liverpool history, he has joined the pantheon of immortals… and arguably now surpassed them all.
Yet if it is greats we are talking about, then another member of this famous Jurgen Klopp forward line deserves similar such recognition.
Ask virtually anyone from the red side of this city, who is the greatest left winger in Liverpool history, and they’ll reply John Barnes, without question. A footballer who changed the game, on and off the pitch.
Barnes scored 108 goals for the club in 407 illustrious appearances, to write his name in Anfield legend. To elevate the number 10 shirt, and own it.
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Yet here, on a wild, wintry day, the man who has shown without question he is truly worthy of inheriting that famous number, took it a step further. He made the number 10 his own too.
Sadio Mane didn’t just produce a truly stunning goal to bring Liverpool back into this contest with Norwich - and back into a title race that seemed to be briefly slipping away - he also wrote a little piece of history.
That vital goal happens to be his 108th for Liverpool, the same as Barnes. But he has produced them in 248 matches - 159 games fewer than Barnes.
So what does that make him? Where do we start?! He is now the joint 16th highest goalscorer in the club’s history, just six places behind Salah on the all-time list.
He isn’t far behind his teammate on the list of the immortals either. There is no question now that Mane is the equal of the legendary Barnes. His energy, his pace, his mesmerising dribbling, they are all reminiscent.
He scores such important goals too. Like Barnes, he is a game-changer, a matchwinner. A player who strikes fear into opponents, and one who his teammates talk about in hushed tones.
The greats themselves talk about him in similar terms too. Listen to Ian Rush, Robbie Fowler, Barnes himself, and they all say he is just as important to Liverpool as Salah.
Salah is actually the Rush of his generation, consistently topping the scoring charts, consistently breaking records. And Rush will always say that he was a better player because of John Barnes, and before that Kenny Dalglish, of course.
This is why the recent talk of Mane leaving Liverpool, of Luis Diaz being signed as his replacement, is wide of the mark. Nonsense in fact.
Diaz strengthens Liverpool, there is no doubt. But we saw here as the wobbles set in when Norwich produced a shock lead, who the big players are. Which ones stood up.
And that is what the greats do. They roll their sleeves up when the s**t hits the fan. It did here because defeat to Norwich would have virtually ended the Reds’ title challenge. That is how serious it was.
Mane did it first. His overhead kick to level the scores as things got frantic, as unrest set in on the terraces, was a thing of beauty, the sign of a master. It was something Barnes would be proud of.
He has scored more goals for Liverpool than Luis Suarez, than Fernando Torres, than Kevin Keegan, John Toshack and Albert Stubbins. Than Roberto Firmino too… which shows his importance to this club.
Would Salah be as effective a goalscorer without him? Of course not. The two go together as Rush and Barnes did. The two now deserve to be recognised in similar reverential tones.
Klopp had just one word for Mane’s goal. “Wow.” And he was also almost lost for words with Salah too, though he did suggest: “His first touch was insane today!”
It was, which produced that stunning goal, where he dumped Angus Gunn on his backside before rolling the ball in. A big player with a big goal. These are the players who deserve new contracts, whatever it takes.
It means Salah is second fastest to 150 goals in Liverpool history, behind only Roger Hunt, who reached the milestone in 226 games, to Salah’s 233.
But Salah’s goals per game ratio is better at this moment than even Hunt over his Anfield career - better than any Reds striker in history, at 1.55 games per goal. The best ever? Quite possibly. And the same should be said of Mane.
