Sadio Mane helped Liverpool break Crystal Palace’s hoodoo in a 1-0 win.
The Senegal winger’s 72nd minute strike ensured Jurgen Klopp’s side did not fall afoul of an Eagles side chasing a fourth successive league win at Anfield.
Klopp looked ahead to Wednesday’s Champions League play-off against Hoffenheim as debutant Andy Robertson was among five changes.
But it was Mane who ultimately settled matters as he fired past Wayne Hennessey to hand the Reds their first Premier League win of the new season
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
Palace aren’t the Reds’ new Leicester
Crystal Palace’s mere mention will have given even the most optimistic Liverpool fan a restless night on the eve of Anfield’s curtain-raiser.
Not since Leicester City has a visiting team seemingly had their side’s number as much as the Eagles did under both Alan Pardew and Sam Allardyce.
Under their previous two managers, Palace had masterminded dogged away victories that threatened to see them become the Reds’ new bogey side.
Long before they were capturing unlikely league titles, the Foxes were more content with regularly taking three points from Liverpool in the late 1990s.
Frank de Boer’s charges had just cause to believe they would write their name in history as the first team since 1961 to record four successive away wins.
Had Christian Benteke managed to extend the goal scoring streak he had previously enjoyed over his former club, they might have succeeded, too.
Robertson already looks a real deal
Even by the poor standards of previous summers, Liverpool’s current transfer window is, at present, ranking as one of, if not their worst in recent years.
Andy Robertson’s £8 million signing should, and ordinarily would, have fallen under the microscope but for an appalling track record with other targets.
But the left-back shows no signs of falling afoul of such scrutiny if his first competitive outing in a red shirt remains a reliable barometer.
Little found its way past him defensively and he was impressive going forward, delivering a series of crosses that merited a far better end product
He could have been equally deserving of a goal himself late on with a stinging long-range effort was parried by Wayne Hennessey.
It remains early days for the Scotland international at Anfield but there is already more cause for optimism that he will not be another Alberto Moreno.
Coutinho out of sight but not mind
Much as Jurgen Klopp would like to avoid Philippe Coutinho’s future stealing focus from Liverpool’s plans before September 1, it remains highly unlikely.
The injured Brazilian was conspicuous by his absence in a game where his trademark creativity and set piece execution were sorely lacking from his side.
It was the latter where they potentially felt it most when carbon copy scenarios of his free kick on the final day of last season against Middlesbrough had beckoned.
Instead, James Milner blasted the ball into the stands while Daniel Sturridge later failed to even clear the Palace wall with his effort.
As Barcelona refuse to concede defeat in their long-running pursuit of Coutinho, so must Liverpool in their insistence that he is not for sale.
Klopp does not have a player blessed with his ability to fill that void as yet.
Still no signs of Sturridge’s renaissance
Gareth Southgate may consider his latest visit to Merseyside a wasted one.
The England manager hoped to catch a glimpse of Daniel Sturridge’s supposed renaissance but it was again lacking in its presence.
Liverpool’s statistically most prolific striker only remains such due to a series of injury setbacks preventing him from building up a regular run of games.
This season threatens to offer more of the same after Sturridge missed a number of pre-season friendlies due to another setback.
A first competitive outing of the new campaign showed him as off-key and rusty with only Mohamed Salah’s introduction sparing him further indignity.
Next summer’s World Cup offers Sturridge a chance to finally convince both club and country that he still merits inclusion on the biggest stage.
He faces a bigger battle than first anticipated as things stand.