The third-most expensive footballer can be an incongruous presence in a mid-table meeting but he illuminated this one. If the £142m fee Barcelona paid Liverpool for Philippe Coutinho suggested his talents belonged on grander stages, he graced this, gliding and ghosting around, confounding and eluding Southampton.
They had held both Manchester clubs on an unbeaten run that spanned seven games but was ended emphatically by Coutinho. Danny Ings’s first reunion with his former club proved his most productive afternoon for his new employers, yielding two assists and a goal, but the architect of Steven Gerrard’s biggest victory as Aston Villa manager was his flagship signing.
