Going into Saturday’s showdown between Liverpool and Arsenal there was talk about the importance of the midfield battle with many suggesting that it would be key to winning the game.

Before the match Arsenal fans were confident and Liverpool fans were worried about the positioning of Arteta, the pace of Wilshere and the panache of Ozil against the inexperienced Henderson and Coutinho and the ageing legs of Steven Gerrard – who many had written off as a holding midfielder 15minutes into the draw at home to Aston Villa. The feeling was that Arsenal would simply have too much for Liverpool in that department.

How wrong they were.

Liverpool produced an excellent team performance in their 5-1 demolition of Arsenal however the most prominent feature of the win was that of the unchanged midfield trio of Gerrard,Henderson and in particular Coutinho.

Gerrard provided a wall in front of the Liverpool defence, adopting a ‘’you shall not pass’’ approach to any and anything Arsenal shaped that would come near, whilst Henderson’s relentless energy made the likes of Ozil fall (literally) to their knees.

But it’s Coutinho’s performance in midfield I want to focus on.

Of the three he’s the relative novice in this role; his early days in Brazil were spent as a tactically irresponsible number 10, his time at Inter Milan was spent either as a false winger or the tactically restrictive role of being sat on the bench. His time at Liverpool has largely been spent on the left or behind the striker.

It was only in the Merseyside derby against Everton that Coutinho had a chance to experience this deeper role and he was excellent in that game. Against Arsenal however he took his game to a new level and gave what can only be described as a footballing lesson to Jack Wilshere.

To emphasise Coutinho’s inexperience in this role, before kick-off he’d played just 153 minutes as a central midfielder in a single pivot 433, Wilshere on the other-hand has played that role many times since his breakout season for Arsenal in 2010.

Yet it was the tricky little Brazilian who showed Wilshere how it’s done, both with and without the ball.

With the ball Wilshere made more passes, with 75 completed (87% accurate - via whoscored) compared to Coutinho’s 46 (83%). Whilst that may sound impressive the Brazilian was more penetrative with four times as many through balls and twice as many of those being accurate.

Defensively Coutinho also outshone Wilshere making 6 tackles and 2 interceptions, the Englishman only able to tally a meagre 1 interception.

Aesthetically there was also a notable difference.

On the ball Wilshere appeared to make too many passes that were easily contained by Liverpool’s midfield trio by simply restricting space around a designated area, Wilshere failed to adapt his approach instead persisting with trying to play through Liverpool rather than working angles around their midfield.

Having taken a keen interest in Wilshere’s career since his excellent showing against Liverpool in the FA youth cup the one thing I have noticed since his return from injury 18 months ago is how much he now tries too hard to force the play, often playing straight short passes to a reference in attack and making straight runs to collect the return.

When he initially broke through at Arsenal he was subtle and cute at making angles for his teammates to exploit, however these days his midfield performances carry all the subtlety of a master safecracker armed with a sledgehammer.

By contrast Coutinho was subtle. He worked the angles, pulled the Arsenal midfield apart in 6 different ways before smuggling the ball to Liverpool’s rampant attack; by the time Arsenal realised what was happening it was too late.

Off the ball Wilshere was again rather obvious. Head down, charge and fail to get close to his man. It was a process that was repeated over and over during the game. Coutinho on the other hand would restrict the space, close the angles and work in tandem with his teammates to ensure that Liverpool won possession back in a manner that would immediately put them on the front foot.

Wilshere behaved like a belligerent bull, Coutinho the artful matador who entertained the Anfield faithful to a midfield masterclass that belied his inexperience in that position.

As he analyses the game back perhaps it would be wise for Wilshere to look his fellow number 10 closely, he may just learn a few things.