Anyone who might dispute the significance of the UEFA Super Cup should realise that Liverpool's penalty shoot-out victory over Chelsea has now restored them to top spot on the honours list as English football's most-successful club.
Before Wednesday night's game at Besiktas' Vodafone Park – and yet another night of shoot-out glory for the Reds in Istanbul some 14 years on from their amazing comeback at the Ataturk Stadium (also the venue for next year's Champions League final) – Liverpool shared top spot on the honours board with their bitter rivals Manchester United having secured 45 pieces of silverware each.
However, thanks to new goalkeeper Adrian's penalty heroics, the Reds have now returned to first place in their own right with 46 'major trophies' won.
This consists of 18 League Championships, seven FA Cups, eight League Cups, six European Cups/Champions Leagues, three UEFA Cup/Europa Leagues, four European Super Cups.
In contrast, Manchester United have 20 League Championships, 12 FA Cups, five League Cups, three European Cups, one European Cup-Winners' Cup, one UEFA Cup/Europa League, one European Super Cup, one Intercontinental Cup, one FIFA Club World Cup.
Charity/Community Shields are not counted on this list as they have often been shared in the past and although they count as official appearances in the record books, they maintain a somewhat ambiguous quasi 'friendly match' status.
When legendary boss Alex Ferguson first took over at Old Trafford, his club had won less than half the number of domestic titles that Liverpool had secured and he vowed that it was his mission to “knock them right off their f****** perch”.
By the end of his reign, United had won some 13 League Championships without reply to move two ahead of the Reds but since the Scot's retirement there have been no more with the balance of power appearing to shift again.
Although United have won a Europa League and FA Cup in the subsequent period and Liverpool's recent Champions League win ensured their European Cup count was double that of United's, neither club has won the Premier League since.
In an extraordinary statement considering that Jurgen Klopp's side finished just one point behind winners Manchester City in last season's title race with a record 97-point haul and sixth-placed United were a further 31 points off the pace, Old Trafford stalwart Gary Neville stoked the fires of rivalry this week by declaring that his old club will “Probably win the league before Liverpool.”
Liverpool now have the opportunity to move further ahead of United before the end of the calendar year with the forthcoming FIFA World Club Cup in Qatar in December, the one glaring omission on their honours list that United – two times winners in its various guises – hold over them.
