Liverpool truly savored a significant triumph as it extended its lead at the top of the Premier League table to nine points thanks to a 2-0 victory over Manchester City at Anfield.
Cody Gakpo's early impact and Mohamed Salah's converted penalty in the second half sealed a match that saw the Reds rule over their rivals, marking their 18th win out of 20 games under the stewardship of Arne Slot.
It was an unforgettable day at Anfield, celebrated fittingly by fans and acknowledged by the national press for its monumental importance to Slot's squad.
Paul Joyce, writing for The Times, commended the Anfield faithful for their vocal homage to the new head coach. "It has been quite the week for head coach Arne Slot, with Real Madrid vanquished in the Champions League in midweek and now City scorched by a team who have come to resemble a ferocious winning machine," he observed.
"It was right that Slot's name reverberated around Anfield after the final whistle. Liverpool should celebrate what they have in the Dutchman whose eye for detail has nursed 18 wins and a draw from his 20 matches and overseen a remarkable level of consistency.
"The gap, at times, resembled a gulf. Liverpool were superior in all departments; the athletic midfield of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai ran roughshod over their opponents, the attack, with Salah scoring and assisting for the 36th occasion to match Wayne Rooney's record in the Premier League, was threatening where Erling Haaland was anonymous and the defense barely put a foot out of place. While City looked frazzled, Liverpool dazzled."
Richard Jolly of The Independent believes there is nobody better than Liverpool in England at present. "City were battered before they were beaten," he writes.
"Not by Guardiola's greatest rival, either, but by a newcomer to this fixture. Jurgen Klopp had the bravery to attack City: others overcame Guardiola's team by ambushing them, whereas Liverpool assaulted them.
"Arne Slot adopted a similar approach. Liverpool began at a ferocious pace; some of City's players, ageing before our eyes, lack pace. Liverpool pulled clear when the game grew more open after they came on.
"They have beaten Real Madrid and Manchester City in five days, the sides who, a few weeks ago, could uncontroversially be called the finest in the world. But with every game it becomes clearer: Liverpool are now the best team in the land."
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah.
Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has been linked with a move to Paris Saint-Germain. (Image: Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
In The Guardian, Jonathan Liew pointed to the three players who are approaching the end of their Liverpool contracts being among the best performers on the day.
"Perhaps the ultimate measure of the standards Manchester City have set over the past four seasons was what happened when they briefly let those standards slip," he writes. "Nobody noticed how fast the Titanic was going until it stopped. Nobody realized just how bloodthirsty the chasing pack was until it finally found something to devour. And on a riotous Anfield afternoon, it was Liverpool who came to eat.
"For Arne Slot, it helps that the messages are still fresh, that the structures are already drilled and honed, that he inherited a squad finely balanced between experience and youth, that he is so clearly prepared to change what does not work (the Brighton and Bayer Leverkusen games the clearest examples of this), that this team is so clearly a meritocracy.
"It helps, too, that there are leaders in the dressing room who can feel their own careers sharpening to a point. Perhaps it was not simply coincidence that Salah, Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk were probably Liverpool's three best players here. All of their contracts are up in the summer. Salah has already started taking his shirt off a lot more when he scores, which is a clear statement of intent to potential suitors. Right now, it feels odds against that all three will still be at the club next season."
Oliver Holt of The Daily Mail was another to be highly impressed by the commanding Liverpool performance.
"City deserved their defeat," he writes. "They looked, once again, a shadow of the team they once were. And Liverpool deserved their victory. They were magnificent against the team that thwarted their ambitions so often during the Jurgen Klopp era.
"City look like a team on the edge of a precipice. Liverpool look like the team most likely to shove them into the abyss.
"Liverpool were brilliant to watch. They commanded the game from start to finish. They were better in every department. They were more hungry than City. They were quicker, sharper, more clever, more accomplished on the ball and more effective off it. Their appointment of Arne Slot to replace Klopp looks more and more like a masterstroke. Not much could have gone better for them."