Investigating Liverpool's 3-1 victory over Newcastle.

The Anfield crowd didn’t show it much in their performance, loud and rambunctious even after their side went down a goal early, but tonight’s game had more than a little deja vu about it, feeling quite similar in many ways to that Champions League clash with Atlético Madrid back in march of last year, before everything shut down.

With three players missing following positive Covid-19 tests, the ghost of Omicron was heavy in the air, but the Reds put that all to the side for 90 minutes and produced a performance that more than earned the final scoreline.

Winners

Mo: It gets old pointing out that Mohamed Salah is pretty good every week, and to be honest, he didn't have his best game in a red shirt tonight, but the Egyptian has now scored and/or assisted in 15 straight Premier League games, equaling Jamie Vardy's record, and is on the verge of breaking another.

Salah has decided to simply play out of his skin this season, and he appears poised to continue putting the record books to shame as he strives to win as many trophies as possible, as well as the kind of wages he believes he deserves.

You simply adore seeing it.

The Defense: Much has been made of Liverpool's attack this season — and rightly so, given that they are averaging nearly three goals per game and appear on track to break the century mark — but tonight was the third consecutive game in which the Reds have prevented their opponents from scoring more than 0.3 expected goals while conceding a total of 12 shots.

The fact that they did so again tonight without perhaps their two most important defensive contributors in Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho makes the feat all the more impressive, and while Newcastle weren't entirely blameless, getting themselves into dangerous situations on a few occasions and forcing an incredible second-half intervention from Trent Alexander-Arnold, their goal came from a 20-yard belter that Shelvey puts into the stands nine times out of ten.

This Liverpool team's combination of attacking and defensive supremacy is extremely unique — most teams can only master one of the two at any given moment — and if it continues, it's tough to imagine them finishing the season without a trophy.

Losers

Sadio: Roberto Firmino came on for twenty minutes tonight and got an assist for laying the ball back to Trent before he blasted an unstoppable shot into the top corner. Bobby has it easy.

Sadio Mané, on the other hand, had no goals or assists despite putting in a lot of effort in the build-up to both of Liverpool's first two goals, first turning and finding the pass to Diogo Jota before the equalizer, then pouncing on Jonjo Shelvey's loose pass and forcing a save from Dubravka despite being clearly fouled by the last man.

It was a game that epitomized Sadio's season in some respects, in that all of his efforts were essential in achieving the team's results, but he left no impression on the stat sheet, and therefore will be forgotten by those who only care about the top line stats.

Hopefully, he'll be able to resume his scoring ways sooner rather than later, so he can receive the praise he so richly deserves.

The Opposition deserves credit.

Certainly not. The massive amounts of money the murderous Saudi monarchy is able to feed into the club will almost certainly tell at some point, but it would be a rare win for karmic justice if Newcastle and their dreadful owners were to leave at the conclusion of this season. Tonight, Liverpool did their part.

What Will Happen Next?

Who knows for sure. Liverpool should play Tottenham on Sunday, but with three players missing after testing positive for Covid-19, and Spurs having had two matches postponed for the same reason, it appears unlikely that the match will go place. A hiatus in all football action appears to be in the cards, and it's unclear if fans will be able to watch it when the schedule resumes.

Whatever happens, the Reds are really good, and we should take advantage of every opportunity to watch them.