As Liverpool approached their Champions League final with Tottenham last season, the streets and housing estates around Anfield began their preparations.
Banners and scarves hung from windows in readiness for a party. Not quite a year on, with a first Premier League title seeming within their grasp, things have not been allowed to get that far.
This, in theory, should have been Liverpool’s week.
A win in the Merseyside derby across the park at Goodison two nights ago — admittedly, not a given — was to have set Jurgen Klopp and his players up for a home game against Crystal Palace on Saturday.