During the half-time interval of Liverpool and Arsenal's blockbuster, a gag was well circulated around the media room.
In those opening 45 minutes, with Jurgen Klopp's side utterly lamentable, there was only one player on the pitch capable of saving Liverpool from humiliation and – so the punchline went – he didn't disappoint: step forward Granit Xhaka.
Xhaka, with stray arm into the neck of Trent Alexander-Arnold and nonsensical lack of discipline, did what no other player had been capable of doing. He galvanised the home crowd, lit a fuse and it could be that Arsenal's best hope of becoming champions for the first time since 2004 disappears.