Liverpool are back. Not back to their best maybe. That would be absurd. A longer period of rehabilitation will be needed to return to the considerable heights of the last two years. But back in the game, certainly.
On the day they surrendered their title, no longer mathematically able to catch Manchester City, they demonstrated many qualities of old. They dispatched Arsenal with some ease. And they ensured that the fight for that final Champions League spot will be an almightily entertaining and thoroughly undignified scramble.
This looked like a Liverpool team again. Whereas recently they have looked punch drunk, a champion fighter staggering around the ring in a state of indignity, now at least they are back on their feet and throwing punches.