BIG MATCH VERDICT

Overall though he will wonder how fortunate it was for his team still to be in with a shout of collecting three points after a limp first half. And it was that which finally pushed Klopp’s buttons. For Liverpool teams of recent years, this would have been the fixture where Swans’ striker Borja Baston buried a string of first-half chances.

The game where the hosts were rewarded for weathering a fierce red tide after the break as the Merseysiders desperately scrambled to make up for lost time.

It would have been the afternoon when home defender Angel Rangel did not bundle over Roberto Firmino, l eading t o Milner’s winning spot-kick.

And the one, too, where home defender Mike van der Hoorn sidefooted a glorious six-yard chance into the bottom corner instead of past the post in the final action of this game.

All those factors tested Klopp’s patience. The post-match debrief did not make for comfortable listening for those of a red persuasion.

His side was ‘ too static’ and the ‘ body language was not good’. Liverpool ‘ were never compact enough’ and ‘there were too many moaning about the decisions of the referee’. Milner revealed that his manager had been angry at half-time.

“We looked like we had turned up to play a football match,” said the visitors’ boss, “not come to fight to win a football match.”

Explosive

Every successful title-chasing team endures afternoons like this one. And that’s the correct term.

Klopp could not put his finger the reasons for it afterwards.

How could he? How could he explain such an explosive start to the victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and then compare it to the opening 45 minutes yesterday?

It wasn’t even in the same bracket as the three points against Arsenal on the first day of the new campaign.

Those displays hinted at a true re-birth. Filled with energy, dynamism and excitement.

This was jam-packed with stodge. Despite the luxury of a whole week to prepare, it appeared as though those legs had just dragged themselves off a plane from the Ukraine at 5am on Thursday morning.

The fluency and timing of the front five was amiss. The midfield’s passing was awry and the back four looked like they had only met on the morning of the match. Gradually, after the interval, the understanding returned.

At the end, the scoreline was in Klopp’s favour. This triumph was the first time Klopp had recorded four successive wins in the Premier League.

“I didn’t think this would be the day when we would be that bad,” he said. “You can accept a bad day but you can fight against it being a bad day. “But I’m happy with the statistic.” And with that, Klopp smiled. Possibly for the first time that day.

Perhaps the sweet taste of victory wasn’t so bad, after all.