STOKE // Catharsis was supplied with a hint of beauty – in an instant, Liverpool could glimpse revenge, relief and redemption.
In the broader picture, one win against a team with inferior resources cannot provide absolution for a historic humiliation but they could savour a swift reversal in fortunes.
Because, 77 days after their heaviest league defeat for 52 years, they returned to the scene of a humbling and triumphed.
Stoke’s 6-1 win in May was a result that will resonate through the ages, yesterday will not.
Philippe Coutinho’s stunning, late, long-range goal was out of keeping with the game, a ray of light amid the darkness, but it may be remembered long after a mundane match is forgotten.
The significance lay in the scoreline and in the sense that Liverpool, so spineless in their May surrender, had located a backbone.
It is rare a defence can claim to have made a six-goal improvement in the space of successive games, even when separated by a summer and with three of the back four changed.
It is an indictment of them in their May mauling, yet, and even when a stalemate seemed the likeliest of outcomes, it was notable that Liverpool were more solid and more streetwise.
Considering how shambolic they were when they last visited Stoke, they were starting from a low base. But differences were apparent in both personnel and attitude.
The summer signing Joe Gomez, installed at left-back, barely crossed the halfway line, a right-footed centre-back played with understandable caution in an unfamiliar position and, on the other flank, Nathaniel Clyne, often an attacking full-back for Southampton, was almost as restrained on his debut.
The centre-backs were not exposed. One, Dejan Lovren, could claim to have enjoyed the best day of his Liverpool career, although that is not saying much: the most expensive defender in their history was an abject failure last year.
It is true, too, that he could have been sent off for elbowing Mame Biram Diouf, but stayed on the pitch and came to resemble the player Liverpool thought was worth £20 million (Dh114m).
“Defensively we were strong and then we know we have the quality to win a game,” manager Brendan Rodgers said.
That quality was only glimpsed once, courtesy of Coutinho. His winner was rendered utterly incongruous by the mediocrity of the match.
Rodgers branded it an “outstanding collective performance” but Liverpool were disjointed and lacked incision.
Christian Benteke, their £32m signing, was a striker without a supply line, Roberto Firmino, the £29m Brazilian, was restricted to a cameo by a lack of match fitness, and Adam Lallana was anonymous.
“I thought both teams were willing to let the game peter out,” said the Stoke manager, Mark Hughes.
“But sometimes when teams invest heavily, £60m or £80m, individuals at top clubs can win games.”
Liverpool have invested £84m this summer, while Stoke have a transfer-market profit, although that could change if Inter Milan’s Xherdan Shaqiri, who was a spectator at the Britannia, joins them.
“We are hopeful,” said Hughes, who otherwise cut a frustrated figure, arguing Lovren should have received his marching orders and that Stoke ought to have been awarded a penalty when Ibrahim Afellay’s shot struck Clyne’s hands.
But if everything went wrong for Liverpool in the perfect storm at the Britannia in May, fortune favoured them on this occasion.
Rodgers was about to substitute the tiring Coutinho when the midfielder scored an extraordinary goal. After the graft, Liverpool finally showed some craft.
Coutinho’s goal apart, this was about what did not happen: they did not lose, let alone get hammered, and Rodgers did not have to face questions about his future.
The shock of the day took place elsewhere, at Arsenal. Liverpool could enjoy the reality that they were not the story.
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