Now that the dust has settled on Manchester United's first victory at Anfield in almost a decade, attention turns to what the Red Devils have found the hardest thing to do in the last two years: build some momentum. As satisfying as Sunday's 2-1 win on Merseyside was, it was far from the only time United have overcome low expectations and pulled off a big result against a top team in recent times.
Last season, Ruben Amorim oversaw a 2-2 draw at Anfield, an FA Cup victory at Arsenal (albeit via a penalty shootout), a smash-and-grab win at Manchester City and a 7-1 aggregate win against a highly-fancied Athletic Club in the Europa League semi-finals. But each of those results, which were hailed as the platform on which United would kickstart the Amorim era, proved to be false dawns.
After their cup success at the Emirates, they had to come from behind late on to beat basement club Southampton and then lost three of their next four league games; the last-gasp victory at the Etihad was followed by four successive defeats in all competitions; the Athletic Club results were sandwiched by defeats to Brentford and West Ham, and ultimately only led to United losing to Tottenham in the Europa League final.
Amorim is painfully aware of this, and during his Sky Sports interview following Harry Maguire's late winner he was already thinking about the next game, signing off by saying "It was a good day and now I am concerned about Brighton." It prompted a light-hearted telling off from interviewer Patrick Davison, but Amorim insisted: "It means a lot today but tomorrow, it won’t mean a lot."
Having finally won back-to-back league matches for the first time since taking charge at United last November, Amorim's great challenge now is to build some momentum and put together a consistent run of results. To do so, there are a number of elements they must get right: