Perhaps bored of Mo Salah breaking all the records, Jurgen Klopp set an historic mark of his own in front of a packed and joyous Anfield.
With the festive football programme now in serious doubt, the German at least gave the fans something to cheer about as he reached 150 wins with the Reds in fewer matches than any manager in Liverpool’s illustrious annals.
On a night when his own side was hit with three Covid-related withdrawals, and half of the Premier League appeared to be laid to waste by the virus, Klopp broke the record mark previously held by Kenny Dalglish, in 12 fewer games.
And just for good measure, the comfortable win over Newcastle saw Liverpool become the first English club to record 2,000 top flight victories.
Who knows if the Premier League will continue as another wave surges across the UK, but if this is to be the last one for a while, then at least the Reds signed off in style, thanks to goals from Diogo Jota, Mo Salah and a wondrous late strike from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
For such a seemingly routine victory though, the match was not without controversy, with Newcastle complaining bitterly about the circumstances surrounding Jota’s equaliser after Jonjo Shelvey had given the visitors a shock lead.
From Andy Robertson’s corner, Isaac Hayden rose to clear, but collided with his own team-mate Fabian Schar and stayed down as play continued.
Referee Mike Dean appeared correct in his gesture to the complaining Newcastle players that there was no head injury, and as the ball was swept back in, Jota headed goalwards, and though Martin Dubravka saved brilliantly, he had no chance with the striker’s follow up.
If Hayden was hurt, then it was caused as Schar fell on him, and though the visiting side felt aggrieved the official was right to continue, and Liverpool of course had to follow his whistle.
It was an emphatic, if contentious, response to Shelvey’s fine goal against his former club, and in truth they deserved nothing less as the visitors took until the final minutes of the first half to record a touch in their opponent’s box.
Shelvey didn’t need to be inside the box though, his screamer from distance after a poor clearance from Thiago on eight minutes giving Newcastle brief hope, as a Liverpool defence missing the isolating Virgil van Dijk, Fabinho looked nervous.
There were no such problems going forward. Jota’s goal was the 32nd consecutive game in which Liverpool have scored - a new all-time club record, beating the previous best set in 1957-58.
It also meant they had scored in 26 consecutive games against Newcastle, a team they clearly love playing. The Premier League record is astounding - more wins and more goals against them than any other opponent.
Salah clearly loves playing them too. He has NEVER failed to score against them at Anfield, and the run inevitably continued, thanks to the sharpness of Mane on 25 minutes.
Shelvey quickly went from returning hero to villain, with a blind back pass that the Senegal international seized on, and though his shot was saved, Salah was quickest to react when the ball came back off Dubravka’s boot.
From there, Liverpool controlled things completely, and should have scored more, but Alexander-Arnold capped things off in the final moments which a thunderous shot from outside the box that set Anfield alight.
