A virtuoso performance from Mohamed Salah ran Southampton ragged as his two goals inspired Liverpool's 3-0 win at Anfield and took the Egyptian to the top of the Premier League scoring charts.
His summer arrival for £38million, at the time a club record, was questioned by critics after his disappointing spell at Chelsea but on this form he is looking an absolute bargain.
Both his first-half goals had a touch of class and his constant threat had visitors backpedalling for 80 minutes before his departure to a standing ovation – by which time Philippe Coutinho had added the third goal.
Liverpool are available at 50/1 in Sky Bet's title odds.
Having edged one ahead of the likes of Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero, both strikers, Salah is racking up some impressive numbers.
The 25-year-old's double took him to nine goals in his first 12 Premier League matches, breaking the club's previous best held by Robbie Fowler - the man affectionately hailed as God by the Kop for his goal-scoring exploits.
The forward's overall statistics are equally impressive with 14 goals, all from open play, in 18 matches and three assists. Last season Philippe Coutinho was the club's leading scorer with 14.
Salah is a 16/1 chance in Sky Bet's top Premier League goalscorer market.
Post-match reaction
Jurgen Klopp hailed Liverpool's improvement after they eased to victory.
He said: "Southampton are a really good football team. We had these moments not too often so far this season. You need these goals and thank God in a moment we score them. That makes all the difference.
"I'm really happy about the defending, the whole team and especially the last line was really strong. It was just an all-round good performance and a really deserved win, and for us of course very important.
"It pushed the top of the table a little bit together. We are still in, that's good. (Manchester) City is obviously flying around pretty alone. We cannot change that but we can make pressure on all the others and that's what we did today.
"We have to build on our experiences that we made so far in the season. We played all kinds of teams, all kinds of styles. There was only one game that was really bad, and that was Tottenham.
"We used these experiences. We have a much better protection, I hope we can keep that, it's a big part of not getting nervous in a game. It looked much more mature and that's very important for us."
Southampton boss Mauricio Pellegrino said: "I think we started well, the first half an hour. But we made a couple of mistakes that against this type of team you cannot.
"After the second goal, it was really difficult for us to come back into the game. We know that we are in a difficult moment and now we have to react because in the Premier League every single team is really difficult."
