Virgil van Dijk’s first-half double helped Liverpool to a 2-1 win over Brighton.
The Dutchman broke the deadlock on 19 minutes as he met Trent Alexander-Arnold’s free kick into the far post to send a looping header past Matt Ryan.
Six minutes later, Van Djik extended his tally in a similar fashion; this time ghosting into the box to convert a corner kick from Alexander-Arnold.
But the game ended on a disappointing note for the Reds when Alisson was given a straight red card after handling the ball outside his penalty area.
From the ensuing free kick, Lewis Dunk rolled the ball into the bottom right-hand corner of Adrian’s net to give the Seagulls a previous unlikely lifeline.
Jurgen Klopp’s side held on to extend their lead in the Premier League title race to 11 points after Manchester City were held by Newcastle earlier in the day.
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
Klopp’s problems start mounting
Just when Liverpool thought their problems were over, another one crops up.
Alisson’s late second-half red card has compounded the already seismic blow of losing Fabinho ahead of Wednesday’s Merseyside derby clash with Everton.
The Brazil international’s desperation to stop Leandro Trossard scoring led to a moment of mindlessness as he handled the ball outside of the penalty area.
An ensuing free kick which led to Brighton scoring a previously unlikely reducer led to fraught nerves around Anfield, as did Adrian’s jitters-inducing display.
In Alisson’s lengthy absence, the former West Ham stopper helped put together an unbeaten league run of nine games but recorded just two clean sheets.
Nail-biting Kopites will be thankful that the understudy’s latest outing will be restricted to a solitary game, even if it is one of the season’s most anticipated.
Van Dijk is true gold standard
Alisson’s red card may still not even be the biggest shock at Anfield this week.
Should Virgil van Dijk fail to win the Ballon d’Or on Monday, with Lionel Messi still appearing the firm favourite, it will be as the most undeserving runner-up.
Rarely has the Holland captain appeared anything less than imperious and once more embodied why he should be taking home football’s top individual honour.
Two quick-fire headers in the first half were enough to put daylight between Liverpool and their visitors as well as setting him on course for an historic feat.
Not since Gary Gillespie’s haul against Birmingham City way back in April 1986 has any central defender in the English top flight managed to rack up a hat-trick.
Unfortunately for Van Dijk, it was not meant to be yet his commanding presence at both ends of the pitch ensured that Liverpool held firm against the Seagulls.
Messi may be majestic and Cristiano Ronaldo equally so. On current form, however, the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year still leaves them in the shade.
Reds are better than Brazil (again)
This will not go down as a vintage display but still carried plenty of significance.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have now equalled a club record of 31 league games unbeaten, matching the feat by Anfield’s legendary class of 1987/88.
Late on that season, the great Tom Finney had hailed Kenny Dalglish’s champions-elect as being a team which was better than the Brazilians.
The legendary England winger would have shared a similar appreciation for the Reds’ modern-day incarnation as they again swagger their way to the summit.
As last season showed, the current 11-point advantage over Manchester City means little at this stage with plenty of twists and turns in the next 24 games.
But there can be no denying that Liverpool are again evoking the Brazil comparisons, and not just because of their current Selecao connections.
Henderson fills the Fabinho void
Coping with the loss of Fabinho was never going to be an easy one.
Even by Klopp’s personal admission, the influential enforcer’s lay-off over the next six weeks leaves big shoes to fill in Liverpool’s holding midfield berth.
Solutions will never be like-for-like but Jordan Henderson offered a compelling argument for covering the void in the interim with a largely tidy performance.
Tireless endeavour has become a hallmark of Henderson’s Anfield career and this was no different as he engineered attacks regularly during the first half.
When Brighton belatedly posed the type of challenge which will confront the league leaders during the coming weeks, he dug in to ward off a late onslaught.
Fabinho-lite it may not have been entirely but still an encouraging start by the Liverpool captain.