There was a time when it would have been fair to say that hype about Steven Gerrard was the most annoying thing to come out of Liverpool since Keith "Cheggers" Chegwin. Back around 2002, for instance, he was regularly hailed as a midfield genius despite the fact that his passing repertoire consisted almost exclusively of hopeful punts over the top for convenient speedster Michael Owen to chase: in the circumstances, bigging up Gerrard was like praising an old woman's distribution when the bread she chucks around Trafalgar Square is pounced on by a pigeon.
But that was then. Now Gerrard is genuinely one of the greatest midfielders in the world, a fact he underlined yet again tonight. With experience and better team-mates, he has improved his game immensely. He no longer attempts to play a match-winning pass with every ball, nor does he frantically scutter hither and thither like a diarrohea-sufferer in search of a toilet. Now his bursts are better timed, his efforts used more efficiently: his fabulous ferocity more focused. Nominally deployed on the right tonight, he wisely drifted inside when he saw Steve Finnan raid down the flank and was in the middle to provide an expert headed finish to the full-back's fine cross.
His short passing has also become much more precise, and his shooting, of course, remains technically perfect and visually spectacular - he's even more deadly from distance than John Arne Riise, the launcher of yet another long-range rocket tonight. Now if only he could stop diving.
He was certainly not the only excellent Liverpool performer tonight: Javier Mascherano was again infallible in front of the back four (though Xabi Alonso, in contrast to Gerrard, was disappointingly sloppy in his use of the time and possession the Argentinian's work afforded him) and the defence again functioned as a formidable unit, Finnan heroic in his usual understated way and Daniel Agger continuing to suggest he's Rafael Benitez's best signing - the seamlessness with which the 22-year-old has replaced Sami Hyppia (possibly Gérard Houllier's best signing) has been remarkable.
Arsenal may have somehow contrived to lose to PSV but we should not, of course, have been surprised to see Liverpool swat them aside with supreme confidence tonight. Not only because the Dutch were depleted (with Alex and Arouna Koné out injured) but because we should almost always expect English clubs to dominate in Europe. In fact, as things now stand, it's hard to envisage a time when there will be anyone other than themselves who can prevent English teams from regularly winning the Champions League and Uefa Cup.
The reason is simple: Serie A may have the continent's highest goals-to-game ratio and the Bundesliga boasts the best attendances, but the Premiership is by far richest league in Europe - and the gap is set to widen. The combination of the new TV deal (which takes effect next season) and the influx of an elite breed of superfatcat owner means the purchasing power of English clubs will reduce most of the rest to crumbsuckers.
Already, the Premiership is a league in which a club on the verge of relegation can hand a defender (Lucas Neill) a salary that would make him the best-paid player in France and where the team that finishes bottom will pocket more prize money than Lyon, Celtic and Internazionale will get for strolling to their domestic titles. And Liverpool's new owners, despite costly plans to switch to a bigger ground, have vowed to hand Benitez £40m to spend in transfer fees this summer: that equates to PSV's entire net annual turnover.
Money doesn't automatically mean success, of course, as Real Madrid, amongst others, can confirm. But the signs are that English clubs are being increasingly well managed. Not only on the pitch - where just as bumper salaries enable them to lure most of the world's best players, they also attract the cream of the coaches (José Mourinho walked out on the European champions to come to Chelsea, Rafael Benitez abandoned the kings of Spain for Liverpool) - but also, contrary to widespread belief, off the pitch: in the 2004-05 season, all but two Premiership clubs made operating profits (Chelsea and Fulham being the slackers), up from 12 out of 20 in 2001. Clubs, it seems, have seen the likes of Leeds and Fiorentina and learned a valuable lesson. And at a time when Italian teams, for example, are having to plan major revamps of their stadiums and methods, Premiership clubs are well placed to press home their advantage.
