There was a moment, when Mohamed Salah sent the ball sailing past Ederson and into the net on Sunday evening, that Anfield shook. It literally shook. Remarkable moments such as these provoke a ferocity at Liverpool's famous old ground that no other English club can match.

Too much can be read into one result, but – and here it goes – that 4-3 win over Manchester City confirmed the growing sense that Liverpool will be the biggest threat to Pep Guardiola’s hegemony of the Premier League for however long the Spaniard stays in English football.

It is not yet a seismic shift – even if the stadium rocked. Last season, of course, we were all writing that Tottenham Hotspur were on the brink of achieving great things, even if there was always the strong suspicion that the move to Wembley – and the club's financial constraints – would stall that momentum.

Money has always been an issue for Liverpool in an era where they appeared to have permanently fallen behind both Manchester clubs and Chelsea. There is also that fear that of all the ‘big’ clubs they are the ones who are most capable of turning bright new eras into false dawns. After all, they ran City close under Brendan Rodgers in 2013-14 only for Luis Suarez’s departure and the mis-spending of the money that came in for him to turn those hopes to ashes.

Liverpool returned to the elite but did not do enough to stay there. When Suarez left, they wanted a ‘like-for-like’ replacement and made the early running in attempting to bring Alexis Sanchez to England from Barcelona before he decided he would rather move to London and play for Arsenal. So, instead, they made the fatal mistake of bulk buying – and, on the whole, bought badly.

Sanchez is on the move again but it will be to Manchester – United, probably, rather than City – and not Liverpool who claim him, with Jurgen Klopp having different targets to pre-occupy him.

But the signing of Virgil van Dijk for a club record of £75 million lifted Liverpool into a different sphere of operating. It is more than City, Chelsea, Arsenal or Spurs have paid for one player. It means they are now trading – in the transfer market – at the highest level especially when the £142 million they will eventually receive for selling Philippe Coutinho has been budgeted for separately.

Liverpool did not need to sell the brilliant Brazilian to balance the books, to pay for Van Dijk or Naby Keita, who is arriving this summer – although the Anfield hierarchy have tried to push through a deal to get the midfielder from RB Leipzig now – and neither is Klopp feeling the pressure to spend the Coutinho money this month.

It is a wise decision. Unless Klopp has deals lined up, unless he can drastically improve his first team – and most Liverpool fans would immediately demand a new goalkeeper – then he is best to wait. Big clubs do not panic buy and, besides, Klopp does not need more players. He needs better players. And better players to keep the best he has.

The argument over the wisdom of allowing Coutinho to depart mid-way through a season will continue. But it was – and this is crucial – Klopp’s decision. The manager reasoned that no-one was bigger than the team, bigger than him, and he had enough to achieve Liverpool’s ambitions this season, with a returning Adam Lallana and a revived Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, without rushing to buy.

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain scored the opening goal in an extraordinary game at Anfield on Sunday credit: REUTERS

Liverpool are on the cusp. A senior figure at Manchester United privately remarked a few years ago that it was more important for them to finish ahead of Liverpool, and for Liverpool to be outside the Champions League places, than any other club.

It is 28 years since Liverpool won the league but they remain, with United and Arsenal, one of the three biggest clubs in England and with a huge reservoir of potential to be released.

In a season when they have lost 4-1 away to Spurs, drawn away to Newcastle United, at home to West Bromwich Albion and conceded three times in drawing away to Watford it may appear fanciful to suggest they are on the brink of something big and sustainable under Klopp.

Jurgen Klopp (left) became the first manager to see his side beat City in the league this season as Liverpool extended their unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions credit: Action Images

But there is a stirring and becoming the first team to beat City in the league, and in doing so extending their own unbeaten run to 18 matches in all competitions, the longest since Rafael Benitez was in charge, laid out a blueprint. It was, as Klopp later said, a “statement”. Now it is about how they react to that statement. How they justify that statement.

There was the bravery of his approach – which included selling Coutinho – and a decision to go toe-to-toe with Guardiola and City. It also highlighted, again, the dourness of Jose Mourinho’s tactics with Manchester United and underlined that modern football is about attacking and taking the initiative. Liverpool showed the rest of the Premier League how to do it.

They will not win the title this season. They will not be the favourites next season, but they on the rise.

By the way, a footnote to Sunday’s game was this: in losing at Anfield City proved why they will be league champions. They were 4-1 down after 84 minutes, had been taken apart and, yet, by the end the Liverpool fans were pleading for the final whistle. Did that say something about Liverpool’s continued vulnerability? Yes. But it also said more about the determination of City to keep playing, to keep going and to score goals. That will ensure that they will not collapse. The title is theirs.

Farewell Cyrille, a player whose legacy goes beyond the game

In all the heartfelt messages in response to the sad passing of Cyrille Regis there is a common theme beyond what a brilliant player he was – and that is how much he inspired a generation of black footballers.

Cyrille Regis stood tall in the face of a river of racist abuse that poured down from the terraces credit: Getty Images

Regis was an icon, a true inspiration. “It was intimidating to run on the pitch and be faced with five or 10,000 people chanting racist abuse at you, or throwing bananas on the pitch,” he once said in an interview. For some of us, naïve people like me, those words are still impossible to fully comprehend.

Regis’s legacy goes beyond the game but it is strangely poignant that his death has occurred at a time when racism is a huge subject again in English football. It is also said that he helped make this country become a more tolerant society. But still not tolerant enough and, maybe, the obituaries, the tributes, the thoughts around his death will lead to further reflection, a further determination for change.