Liverpool shrugged off a coronavirus outbreak to keep their Premier League title challenge on track with a 3-1 win over Newcastle that was lit up by Trent Alexander-Arnold's wonder goal.
The Reds lost Virgil van Dijk and Fabinho to positive cases of Covid before kick-off as a surge of infections across Britain threatens to bring the season to a temporary halt.
Liverpool were further rocked when Jonjo Shelvey opened the scoring against his old club after just seven minutes.
But Newcastle remained mired in the bottom three for a reason as goals from Diogo Jota and Mohamed Salah turned the game around before half-time.
Alexander-Arnold’s thunderbolt four minutes from time rounded off an eighth consecutive win for Jurgen Klopp’s men as they close to within one point of leaders Manchester City.
“What a stunner! Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said on Alexander-Arnold’s goal. “The boy has a different level in his shooting technique.”
Before kick-off Klopp spoke out to encourage people to ignore the “lies and misinformation” around vaccination from coronavirus and get their jabs or boosters.
Curtis Jones was also absent for the Reds due to a positive test for Covid.
But Klopp confirmed on Wednesday that his squad are fully vaccinated and therefore did not lose any other players due to being close contacts of those with the virus.
Anfield hosted the final top level game in England in front of a full crowd before the pandemic shut football down for three months in March 2020.
History could be repeating itself as five of the 10 Premier League games scheduled for this weekend have already been called off.