It was a Cup night, so did you expect anything other than surprises? Nothing ever goes to plan at Anfield on occasions such as these and so it was true.
There was a surprise for Alexander Isak, who found himself being ordered to do more running at half-time when he thought the sanctuary of the changing room beckoned. There was a surprise for Will Still, who saw his Southampton team leave their patchy form well behind.
But the biggest shock was reserved for Arne Slot, who watched in disbelief as Hugo Etikite saved the day in moment then, in the next, presented his manager with a unnecessary headache from two actions that even his team-mates regarded as preposterous.
You have to go some to get criticism after plundering a late winner but for Ekitike to put a blemish on all his early outstanding work with two – wholly avoidable – bookings and earn himself a suspension for Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace left Slot dumbfounded.
‘Needless? Yes,’ Slot harrumphed. ‘And it was stupid. It was. In the first one (for dissent), it was already needless and, to a certain extent, stupid, as you have got to control your emotions. I know how hard it is if you play in the Premier League, if you’re a number nine.
‘The defender can almost do everything he wants and when you shirt pull or push him a little bit, you get a free-kick against you. It’s always the best to control your emotions. If you can’t, do it in a way that doesn’t lead to a yellow card.
‘I said after I got my red card against Everton that is always stupid because you can show emotions, but if it leads to a yellow or red card, that is stupid. That’s what happened in the first yellow. Needless, not smart, you call it stupid, I called it stupid right away as well.’
Taking the spotlight away from Isak, who got the first goal of his Liverpool career, was going to take some doing but Ekitike managed it. Still, it will be a relief to the £125million man that he is up and running, having got off the mark like a impatient batsmen scampering a quick single.
Quick-thinking from Federico Chiesa, an instinctive dart into space and Isak compounded the error Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy had made, conceding possession so cheaply, by sweeping a shot into the Anfield Road End net. They had been waiting for this moment and how they enjoyed it.
But the man himself? Perhaps he had envisaged being greeted with slaps on the back as he made his way off at the interval – you could certainly tell he wasn’t expecting to see Aaron Briggs, one of Arne Slot’s coaching team, ordering him back out to do some high intensity sprinting.
‘That’s a new one on me,’ Isak said later with a smile. ‘It was funny. I’ve got to get fit.’
It was that kind of night. Slot looked exasperated once again as Liverpool needlessly conceded an equaliser to Shea Charles late in the second half, an equaliser that was deserved and owed nothing to good fortune.
There is a vulnerability about the Premier League champions defensively and, again, it showed.
Southampton are struggling to find a rhythm in the league under new head coach Will Still but, free of the pressure that accompanies the grind of trying to win three points each week, they took what was a free shot and almost knocked Liverpool clean out.
Quite how the game would have unfolded had, in the 42nd minute, Southampton taken the glorious chance that came their way is anyone’s guess but it would not have out of keeping had they gone into the interval with the advantage rather than Liverpool.
But everything changed in the 41st minute Adam Armstonhg hit the bar after a quick break and Leo Scienza somehow contrived to head wide of a gaping goal with Giorgio Mamardashvili, the Georgia international making his Liverpool debut, stricken on the ground.
Football is cruel and, in the next attack, Liverpool went up the field, McCarthy tried to play out in his six yard area – sometimes coaches and players can be too clever for their own good – and Liverpool had smashed their visitors on the nose to eye-watering effect.
Southampton, to their credit, came back when Shea Charles profited in the 75th minute from some lax defending at a corner but the dream result was unobtainable. Ekitike saw to that but he also saw that his manager would be furious.
‘I told him that if you score in the Champions League final in the 87th minute after outplaying three players and hititng it in the top corner, I can maybe understand he is like: ‘This is all about me, what did I do’. But I am old-fashioned, I’m 47 and old. I never played at this level but did score a few goals and if I scored a goal like this, I’d have turned around and walked up to Federico Chiesa and said: ‘This goal is all about you, this is not about me’.’
