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Normality restored at Anfield. Liverpool, for the first time since November 4, won a home game. In the stands, Mohamed Salah's name was sung loudly.
At the final whistle, Salah did a lap of the pitch, applauding all sides of the stadium. It didn't feel like he was waving goodbye, but he did essentially say he might be last week. You can never read too much into these things because, as ever, in soccer, things can change quickly.
Last weekend at Elland Road, Salah had leveled all sorts of accusations at his employer. He claimed it had "thrown him under the bus", that he was being made a scapegoat for failings, and that "someone" wanted him out.
Since then, his relationship with Arne Slot has clearly improved sufficiently, given he not only played, but performed well, here. The pair spoke on Friday and it was decided that the player would return to the matchday squad this weekend.
"What I need is a conversation with him and I think the next time I speak about Mo should be with him and not in here," Arne Slot had explained on Friday morning, playing down the situation.
"You can keep on trying but there is not much more to say about it [other than] that I speak to him today. Like I said, the outcome of that conversation determines how things will look tomorrow."
While we knew on Friday that he would be returning to the Liverpool matchday squad for this game, and that, realistically, he would be starting on the bench, what we couldn't predict was him coming on in the first half.
When Joe Gomez went down with another injury, given that there were no real senior options to turn to in his position other than Dominik Szoboszlai, the best choice was Salah.
He played on the right wing, with Szoboszlai behind him, and this was his best performance for some time. He ran, he chased, and he looked to pass much more frequently than he often does.
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Salah was lively from the moment he entered the field and looked much more like his usual self. There was no Alexander Isak here, at least not until late in the game, but the rest of the team around him was basically the same as how things have been for him in recent weeks.
During the match, Salah's name was ringing around Anfield regularly. There was a huge cheer that went up when he was brought on and then when he touched the ball near the goal too.
At the final whistle, he did a lap of the Anfield turf, smiling and waving; a stark contrast to the frustration of seven days ago.
The Egyptian, it seemed by his performance, wanted to make a point. If Salah had played like this all season, he would have been in the team much more often — this was the kind of reaction Slot would have wanted.
Unlike at Elland Road, where he wasn't given the chance after he was left on the bench, Salah did so on the grass — rather than the mixed zone — here.
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