Happy returns for birthday boy Arne Slot. Liverpool breezed past AC Milan at the San Siro in their first taste of Champions League action this season.

Christian Pulisic’s fierce first goal was cancelled out by Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate, who both headed past Mike Maignan in the second half, demonstrating to the likes of Diogo Jota how to score.

Jota endured another testing contest, having not looked near his clinical best in recent weeks. He was eclipsed by the performance of Cody Gakpo, whose dynamism was far too much for the Milan defence to contain.

Gakpo’s starting to show that he’s best equipped to wreak destruction on Liverpool’s opponents when placed on the left. He was rather brilliant under the European lights on his first start of the season.

The Liverpool Echo’s Ian Doyle handed him a whopping 9/10 match score, writing: ‘Looked threatening whenever he had the ball and was too strong and powerful for Milan at times with his running and dribbling. Had a few shots that worked Maignan in the first half and low cross almost brought a goal from Salah. Brilliant run set up Szoboszlai for the third.’

It was indeed the upswing in energy and enterprise that was the most attractive part of the Dutchman’s display. We’ve all seen flashes of brilliance over the past couple of years but he doesn’t mesh it all together with the consistency that is desired.

He claimed a wonderful assist for Dominik Szoboszlai’s second-half goal, carving the hosts open like a shark through a school of fish. As per Sofascore, Gakpo hit the target twice and made two key passes, also winning seven of 11 contested duels and completing four of his seven dribbles.

Slot revealed post-match that his countryman was supposed to start against Nottingham Forest last weekend but wasn’t quite fit enough, and Luis Diaz thus reprised his role.

Could have been the difference-maker, that. It’s great to see the Reds boasting such strength in depth though, with Gakpo’s excellent effort diverting eyes from the resurgent Mohamed Salah, who appears to have put his one-match blue patch behind him.