After all the talk about Virgil van Dijk’s return to Southampton, all the conjecture about how he would cope with the fury and the boos, it look barely six minutes for his performance to be reduced to nothing more than a sideshow to the main event.

Call it the Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino effect. Liverpool’s attacking duo rendered irrelevant the furore over Van Dijk in as little time as it takes for them to carve open a vulnerable defence. And as a bewildered Southampton back-line will attest, that is not very long at all.

Twice in the first half Salah and Firmino flicked the switch, and twice the home side’s defenders were left staring at each other as if they had been bewitched.

Southampton had not even performed badly in that first half. Mauricio Pellegrino’s side had enjoyed a six-game unbeaten run for a reason, and there was genuine enterprise and creatively for long spells in those opening exchanges.

But Southampton do not have a Firmino, and they certainly do not have a Salah, the man crowned the ‘Egyptian king’ by Liverpool’s besotted supporters. Between them, those two have now plundered 49 goals this season. It should have been at least 50, if not more, by the time a one-sided second half was brought to a close.