The best English footballer just now? The names Harry Kane and Dele Alli would also figure prominently in any debate but, if there was one moment that underlined the instinctive, almost uncoachable, qualities that have currently elevated Adam Lallana beyond all others, it was in injury time of Liverpool’s 3-1 win against Arsenal.

Liverpool were under considerable pressure when the ball cannoned out to Lallana in a still dangerous area of the pitch. He was not just the calmest person inside Anfield but, in football terms, also the most intelligent as he first brought the ball under control and then took a split-second to weigh up the options before exquisitely releasing Divock Origi with the outside of his right foot to help seal victory.

Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were among the forlorn Arsenal players looking on and, in considering how and why Lallana has been steadily overtaking his two former Southampton academy team-mates, the lesson for other young players is instructive.

Walcott was in the same Southampton team as Lallana that reached the 2005 FA Youth Cup final. Yet while Walcott was then the most sought after teenage talent in world football and moved to Arsenal the following January, Lallana would simply have settled for a career at Southampton.