But can high-flying Liverpool handle the pressure?
LIVERPOOL’S IMPRESSIVE ALL-ROUND DISPLAY SEALS RECORD VICTORY AND HAS MANY CONVINCED THIS IS THEIR YEAR, SO WE ASK...
THE expectations have had a habit of suffocating the life out of Liverpool at moments like this.
The absence of a league trophy these past 28 years has created what Jamie Carragher once described as a ‘gaping, lingering void’.
And just a few wins — never mind the opening seven games for the first time in the club’s history — does something to the dreamers in such an optimistic place.
It is why the composure was just as significant as the points as the club equalled their best-ever start to a league campaign since Bill Shankly was pulling up trees in the old Second Division 57 years ago.
The exertions of overcoming Paris Saint-Germain did look to have taken a toll on a side whose preparations were limited by Storm Ali battering Melwood during training on Friday.
There was a setback: Virgil van Dijk departing 10 minutes into the second half after taking a blow to a rib which he had been suffering soreness with before Tuesday night’s match against the French.
Yet the difficulties were brushed aside. It became an exercise in game management, rather than the kind of football exhibition for which Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is known.
The manager played his part, removing Xherdan Shaqiri at half-time having concluded that the player’s considerable contribution, in his first start for the team, was to the detriment of keeping Southampton out. Shaqiri had played a big hand in two of Liverpool’s three goals by then.
‘I’ve never taken such an influential player off at half-time without injury,’ Klopp said. ‘I wanted to control the game.’
The Swiss star had been rewarded for his endeavour inside 10 minutes when his shot from the left of the area pinballed in off Shane Long and the knee of Wesley Hoedt, though Sadio Mane’s subtle contribution to the goal was more significant.
Meandering away from goal with the ball at his feet, Sane had turned, shaped back the way he had come, and slid the pass inside Cedric Soares for Shaqiri to pick up.
It was in every sense the game which shone a light on the depth of Liverpool’s strength.
Joel Matip had already made a significant impression on his own first start of the season before sending Trent Alexander-Arnold’s 21st-minute corner high beyond Alex McCarthy with a header of first-class accuracy.
Mohamed Salah contributed significantly, shrugging off his own albatross and rediscovering that smile, wide as the Mersey, having accelerated ahead of Soares after Shaqiri’s free-kick bounced down from the bar and scored the third.
Salah was Liverpool in microcosm: flashes of sublimity, like an effort with the back of his left heel after he’d rounded Jannik Vestergaard which trickled an inch wide, yet struggles, too. The Kop’s firsthalf Salah anthem was sung more in empathy than euphoria.
A significant subsidiary narrative belonged to Van Dijk, who reminded Southampton how much they miss him.
There was a 40-yard diagonal pass for Mane to take down from the sky. A calmly-placed challenge to take the ball off Long’s toe during a brief early incursion.
A sharp word for his goalkeeper Alisson after what Van Dijk seemed to consider a lack of command in
the Liverpool box. But there was defensive fragility everywhere you looked in Mark Hughes’ ranks.
Vestergaard was comfortably beaten to that header by Matip and the speed of reaction to the free-kick which Salah seized upon was poor.
The manager did not attempt to disguise the vulnerability.
The goals were ‘too easy’ he said. His team were ‘vulnerable on the break’ he conceded. ‘We didn’t defend correctly. We ended up conceding easy goals.’
Not for the first time a Hughes team parading genuine attacking intent — Nathan Redmond delivered consistently well from the right and Long was an intermittent threat — looked terribly weak at the back. James Milner’s introduction in the second half compressed Southampton yet further.
Klopp said he had not expected this record start.
‘Yes, it’s a surprise,’ he said with a grin. ‘I lost seven in a row once in my life but won game eight 5-0.’
However, the challenges ahead are substantial. They have Chelsea away on Saturday, and Manchester City eight days later.
‘Yes the period ends with a nice game against Man City,’ Klopp said. ‘It’s nice for all of us but the next one is coming.’