Lazar Markovic produced a wonderful performance for Liverpool as the visitors scrapped their way to a much-needed 1-0 away win at Sunderland.
The Serbian winger, signed in the summer, finally showed signs of living up to his £20m price tag, scoring the eventual winner after just nine minutes, while proving a constant threat to the home defence.
Sunderland midfielder Liam Bridcutt was sent off for his second yellow card early in the second half and despite a late fightback, Gus Poyet's side had no reply and mantain their miserable record of one home win all season.
After an electrifiying start from the Reds, they got their breakthrough early, with a swift counter-attack resulting in Fabio Borini playing through Markovic and former Benfica midfielder forced his way into the six yard box, before poking the ball past the outstretched Costel Pantilimon.
Sunderland responded well initially, with Emanuele Giaccherini catching the eye, before drawing a foul from ex-Sunderland player Fabio Borini, earning the latter a yellow card.
Liverpool maintained their dominance however, with only a Pantilimon fingertip denying Steven Gerrard's low drive on 26 minutes, before the captain's costless-kick was tipped over minutes later, as a result of Santiago Vergini's foul.
The woodwork was struck twice within the next minutes, first with Markovic's incredible jumping volley hitting the crossbar, before Jordan Henderson smashed Philippe Coutinho's diagonal pass onto the base of the post and another glorious chance went begging right on half-time, as Fabio Borini latched onto Emre Can's long ball, before trying to round Pantilimon, but his angled shot hit the side-netting.
Steven Gerrard never returned out of the tunnel for the second half, picking up an injury and getting replaced by defender Dejan Lovren, meaning Can moved into midfield.
The brilliant Lazar Markovic had yet another effort come close at the start of the second half, before controversy kicked in. Attempting to stop Emre Can's charge down the right, Liam Bridcutt appeared to bring down the Turk, albeit softly and having already been booked, Craig Pawson showed red.
That red card only really seemed to spur Sunderland on however and Adam Johnson hit an absolute firecracker of a long shot against the crossbar, before Martin Skrtel poked the rebound away and Brendan Rodgers looked nervous.
The Black Cats gave everything they had to the Liverpool defence, bringing on Will Buckley and misfiring striker Danny Graham at the end, but the back four of Merseyside stood strong. A couple of half-chances went begging and eventually, so did Sunderland's grip on the game, as they were condemned to yet another defeat.
The defeat sees Gus Poyet's Mackems drop to 15th, while Liverpool stay in 8th, now just a point behind West Ham.
| Sunderland (0) | Liverpool (1) | ||
 |  |  |  |
| Pantilimon | 6 | Mignolet | 6 |
| Vergini | 5 | Can | 6 |
| O'Shea | 6 | Skrtel | 7 |
| Brown | 6 | Sakho | 6 |
| Van Aanholt | 7 | Moreno | 5 |
| Bridcutt | 5 | Lucas | 6 |
| Johnson | 6 | Gerrard | 6 |
| Larsson | 5 | Henderson | 7 |
| Gomez | 5 | Markovic | 8 |
| Giacherrini | 6 | Coutinho | 7 |
| Wickham | 5 | Borini | 6 |
| Substitutes | |||
| Buckley | 5 | Lovren | 5 |
| Graham | 5 | Balotelli | 5 |
| Mandron | - | - | - |