Yesterday’s match and performance would have made a good presentation and interpretation of the word ‘overturn’. And while the definition and result is definite, it leaves the main door wide open for discussion, whose merits only time and the table will prove right or wrong.
A dodgy start at the opening day of the season at Anfield was overturned to a dogged one, where determination coupled with skill triumphed over what looked so far an inept and lame display even though its start has promised good things, as some interplay between the forwards was making the green grass of Anfield look lush and slick, with such promises though fading out by the minute and every misplaced corner kick, finally looking to have been buried by Mido’s shot that found the back of the net with aplomb.

But what wasn’t done in fourteen corners and eighty-five minutes, was done in ten minutes. It all started by Jamie Carragher improvising a situation and avoiding the embarrassment of another wasted set-piece. As some Boro defender handled the ball, Carra did not wait for Mark Riley’s whistle. He just pounced on the loose ball and with the single mindedness of an escaped prisoner lashed out a shot towards goal. It only hit some body in the penalty area but the momentum of Carra’s strike fuelled by his determination wrong footed the keeper and ended up in the net. The escaped prisoner was not content with just getting some fresh air, he managed to get into some safe haven that three points preclude for the time being at least. And that was through the captain Steven Gerrrad, who like the rest of his team mates was rather off colour so far. But cometh the moment and opportunity, Liverpool’s number eight curled the ball with calmness and audacity that defied the desperation and urgency of the situation.

Liverpool did get out of jail. Again you might argue. My dilemma is whether in the coming matches Liverpool will be paying time on such escapes. Else, such doggedness is the prelude of things to come, and which is liberating the whole team from past mental shackles that the last step to the podium is too still to climb. Luck, skill and bravery have never been mutually exclusive either.