Consider Newcastle United’s midfield argument settled.
For all the issues Eddie Howe still has to solve to turn his black and white conundrum into a consistent Premier League force, there must now be no room for deviation on their engine room formula.
Everything flows from Sandro Tonali as a number six and the Italy midfielder simply has to be a fixture in the starting line-up from now on.
Tonali is a coming force in the big games. Having hinted at his rising influence by being the best of a bad bunch at Crystal Palace on his return to the starting XI on Saturday, Tonali oozed class against a Liverpool team set up to dominate the midfield battle.
It would be an act of self-sabotage if Howe removed from him the team now, whatever the underrated Sean Longstaff brings to the party.
This was what Newcastle paid Milan £55m for Tonali for – control in the really big games against top class opposition.
Under Howe they will always be able to summon a frenetic sort of energy against the best teams but for 45 minutes on Wednesday they were able to grab hold of proceedings against the Premier League’s best side. For that, you can largely thank Tonali.
That his performance dovetailed with the best game of Bruno Guimaraes’ season was timely for Howe, who began December in arguably the most uncomfortable spot of his Newcastle career.
There is plenty of mitigation for Newcastle being 10th in the Premier League – the downright weird nature of their season summed up by them creating a chance after 80 seconds last night, having been unable to do it for 94 minutes at Crystal Palace – but Howe knows being mid-table is not acceptable for the club’s power brokers.
For all of that, The i Paper has consistently been told Howe’s job is not under any sort of threat. Those that matter at Newcastle retain complete faith in the manager and Wednesday showed why. As well as being an excellent coach, he really is capable of conjuring a gameplan and system capable of wobbling Europe’s best.
The key now is to maintain those standards – and adapt the strategy – when they take on some of the division’s middleweights. For all the euphoria of Fabian Schar’s late leveller, it feels like Saturday’s testing trip to Brentford might be a more accurate marker of where Newcastle are right now.
There may be a temptation to dismantle the midfield trio of Guimaraes, Tonali and the immense Joelinton for what feels like a totally different assignment in west London but Howe should avoid it. Those three need a run in the team.
As much as Newcastle’s performance against Liverpool proved a point, it also raised questions about some of their big guns. Anthony Gordon’s celebration after scoring Newcastle’s second – yapping hand gestures mocking some of the talk around this team – were a clear message to the critics but he might have missed the point.
No one has ever said Gordon – a constant thorn in Liverpool’s side – can’t summon big performances against the best.
What has been levelled at him is a reluctance to shift to the right to accommodate Harvey Barnes and a lack of consistency against a low block, which is something that will be tested in upcoming matches against Brentford and struggling Leicester. On this evidence, Gordon has no excuses not to prosper.
December feels pivotal for Newcastle. Winnable tests in the league are punctuated by a League Cup quarter-final against Brentford just before Christmas that gives them a route to returning to Wembley for a second time in three seasons.
In amongst all that are some crucial recruitment meetings that follow Howe’s admission that Newcastle squad is at risk of becoming stale.
There is a way out of their Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) straitjacket if Paul Mitchell and Howe are prepared to take some difficult decisions.
Some Howe favourites might have to be made available to generate PSR headroom to invest. As Tonali illustrated on Wednesday night, sometimes the solution has been staring you in the face all along.