It was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s old boss who spoke of never giving up on people. But Arsene Wenger was talking about Jack Wilshere. ‘The Ox’ was sold to Liverpool, where the spark of a once promising career flared back to life on a day when his new club were meant to be mourning Philippe Coutinho.

Liverpool’s coffee table book of great Anfield days acquired a fresh page with this nerve-fraying 4-3 beating of the league’s best team, who arrived with a 15-point lead while the hosts were agonising over Coutinho’s January sale to Barcelona for £145m. Was that Catalonian talent-grab, which followed Luis Suarez’s move to the Camp Nou, further evidence that Liverpool’s ability to hang on to world-class players expired with the rise of Europe’s superpowers?

If losing your most gifted player is a sign of weakness, a harbinger of doom, Liverpool did a hell of a good job of hiding it with a ball-hounding plan that knocked Manchester City out of their usual rhythm until a late fightback made local stomachs spin. With Oxlade-Chamberlain, Roberto Firmino, Sadio Mane and Mo Salah all scoring, the loss of Coutinho was made to seem a mere detail on the payroll, though there will still be times when Liverpool miss his talent for the unexpected.