Yes, it was a much changed, severely weakened Swansea side; seven changes made with more than one eye on next Sunday's Capital One Cup Final (and frankly, as it's the first major final in their history, who can blame them) but we shouldn't let that detract from today's positive showing.
Before today Liverpool hadn't registered a single goal against Swansea since their return to the top flight, hadn't beaten a team in the top half of the table. That they have now achieved both those (admittedly modest) aims can not be purely ascribed to Michael Laudrup's decision to protect his star players for next week; there was much to admire in Liverpool's performance once again.
This was the Liverpool that performed against Arsenal and Manchester City, not the Liverpool that vanished against West Brom last Monday and succumbed to defeat by repeated self inflicted errors against Zenit on Thursday.
The shape, industry and invention was back again; restored to the side with Daniel Sturridge and accompanied by the full debut of the promising Phillippe Coutinho. Despite these the game was once again the Luis Suarez show; appearing tired and jaded against both WBA and Zenit St Petersburg, here he was restored to his dazzling best.
Everything in the first half went through Suarez; his movement and partnership with Sturridge scintillating once again. And once again a penalty was awarded for a shove on Suarez; given by the linesman rather than referee Howard Webb. Unlike the previous home league game, here Gerrard converted with a crisp shot to Vorm's right. This heralded a 15 minute onslaught on the Swansea goal although there would be no further conversion of chances created until the second half.
Sixteen seconds into the second half to be precise a delightfully inventive reverse pass by Suarez freed Coutinho for a charge on the Swansea back line, a drop of the shoulder and a neat finish for his first Liverpool goal.
What followed was as efficient a showing as Liverpool have provided under Brendan Rodgers; the interplay of sharp passing which led to Luis Enrique scoring Liverpool's third was quite probably the club's most impressive passage of play this season. An excellent through ball by Downing gave Suarez the chance to cap his display with a goal of his own and the afternoon was settled beyond doubt by a Sturridge penalty given after a Routledge handball forced, once again, by the presence of Luis Suarez.
That Suarez was substituted to inevitable ovation shortly after this was clearly to his own displeasure, but should have given Fabio Borini the opportunity to add impetus to his hitherto underwhelming Anfield career. It is typical of Liverpool's schizophrenic season and the player's own ill fortune that his afternoon ended instead in agony.
Charging down Swansea's right back in order to prevent a forward pass late in the game proved his passion but led only to his falling awkwardly on his left shoulder. His sickening screams were heard above the crowd. A dislocation of his shoulder appears to have ended Borini's season.
So we have our positives; a return to the 4-3-3 that has worked so well recently, industry, shape, movement, the Suarez/Sturridge partnership developing further, a clean sheet, five goals and a move to the giddy heights of seventh.
The task now is to repeat this level of performance on Thursday to effect progress in Europe and then throughout what is a relatively straight forward run in to the end of the league season if we wish to prove that we actually are building toward a team that can perform consistently and at least look to challenge for a place in the top four.
Humble objectives obviously but lets start from where we are now and attempt to apply today's positives to that position.
Check out Ian's blog Mumbling Into The Void and follow his mumblings on Twitter here.
Want to write a guest blog for LFC Online? Get in touch