Rather ironically, the New Balance Football slogan 'make chances, take chances' frequently popped up on the advertising hoardings at Anfield on Saturday afternoon.
It was something which Liverpool failed rather miserably to do, as their growing bubble of optimism was suddenly burst by Slaven Bilić's West Ham - who were controlled and rigid at the back and devastating on the counter attack to come out with a comprehensive 3-0 win.
It was the perfect away performance and one which will live long in the memory, having brought to an end a wretched away record on Merseyside.
It was slightly blemished by the fact that they were baffingly reduced to 10 men after captain Mark Noble was controversially given his marching orders late on, but that was not to put a dampener on a memorable afternoon.
However, whilst the Hammers were excellent, and rightly deserve all the plaudits after such a performance at a ground where they had struggled for so long, much must also be taken from just how poor the home side were.
Brendan Rodgers' side had been solid, if unspectacular, until now. Defensively, the slight cracks were papered over by the fact that Dejan Lovren actually looked capable of doing the simple and necessary defending and the Reds had balanced full-backs who made them a stronger unit.
Things hadn't quite clicked up the other end of the pitch either, but with just three games gone and an unbeaten record maintained, there was still time for that to come together - as long as Liverpool continued to grind out results.
Then, suddenly, West Ham came along and brought the Reds down to earth with a thuddering crash. All that optimism, all that hope and belief. Gone. The faith in the likes of Rodgers and Lovren just starting to return, gone down the drain. But where exactly did it all go wrong?
Hosts put themselves under the cosh after three minutes
Well, there's a fairly simple explanation. Things began with all the hallmarks of a routine home game. Liverpool seemed to have started on the front foot, keeping the ball well as the fans gave them their full vocal backing.
But then, merely 148 seconds into the game, those same home fans had their heads buried in their hands as a series of basic mistakes allowed West Ham to put themselves ahead.
Martin Skrtel failed to clear a cross well enough, heading the ball into further danger which allowed Aaron Cresswell, who the Liverpool defence were too slow to get out to, to send a low cross in towards the back post.
Whilst Joe Gomez was in a good position to deal with the delivery, rather inconceivably, Manuel Lanzini was allowed to nip between the Englishman's legs and direct the ball into Simon Mignolet's bottom corner.
It suited the away side down to the ground because their plan, essentially, was to replicate the 'smash and grab' style performance they produced to perfection at Arsenal. They did exactly that, but perhaps in even better style than their win in North London.
Tight and compact Hammers contain the home side
Having stolen an early advantage, Bilić's men were perfectly content to drop deep and defend in numbers. They matched Liverpool's 4-3-3 formation on paper, but Dmitri Payet and Lanzini often came back alongside the three-man midfield as to give it more of a 4-5-1 look, with Diafra Sakho upfront alone.
This restricted the space Liverpool had to play in, and without any natural wide men on the pitch, they had very little response to West Ham's set up.
The visitors' cause was helped by their superbly-executed pressing tactics. They constricted the space around the Liverpool man with the ball, as the nearest two claret and blue shirts closed them down and cut the passing lanes, preventing Liverpool any time or space to play any direct passes forward.
This, rather wisely, was only applied to specific Liverpool players in specific zones. Lucas, Lovren and Skrtel were, for the most-part exempt, as they sat further back and were more likely to pass sideways rather than look for the incisive ball forward. Rather than pressing them and pulling their methodical low block out of place, West Ham waited until exactly the right moments to press.
But, even with that said, the home side didn't exactly help themselves. Too often, Gomez, playing in the left-back role he had done so well in thus far - was starved of an outlet ball. Continually forced to cut inside on his stronger right foot, Liverpool severely lacked in threat going down that side - which was where they predominantly attack from in the first-half.
Philippe Coutinho, playing on the left side of Christian Benteke, often came inside - as Roberto Firmino did on the opposite side, meaning they lacked crucial width.
With Gomez and Clyne pushing up the pitch in order to try and provide that overlap and width, that left the central defensive pairing overexposed on the counter attack, and with Lucas Leiva struggling in his holding role, the away side ran riot on the counter attack.
West Ham demonstrated such threat on the break on the 15-minute mark. A Clyne cross from the right side was well dealt with in the centre. Cresswell quickly cleared to Payet, who carried it forward to the halfway line and found Lanzini.
One clever touch from the Argentine allowed him to move into a central area, where he found himself in between the Liverpool midfield desperately trying to get back, and the defence. With space around him and options, Liverpool found themselves in a tough predicament.
With Clyne and Gomez also out of position, neither Skrtel or Lovren could afford to step up and take on Lanzini - who had could have easily engineered a two-on-one attack had he either found Payet to his right, or got past the centre back who would have stepped up.
As it happened, Skrtel and Lovren backtracked until Lanzini reached the edge of the box, and then tried to thwart the range of goal he had available to him. It worked, as the forward fired wide, but could have quite easily been a more serious situation.
Reds shoot themselves in the foot for second goal
West Ham maintained their sturdy set-up at the back, and broke forward with pace and incisiveness on the odd occasion. But again, it was Reds who shot themselves in the foot for the second and what was going through Lovren's mind remains a mystery to all.
Gomez's poor pass out to Coutinho on the left flank gave the away side a throw-in and after Tomkins hooked the ball down line, out of hope more than anything else, Lanzini was isolated up against Lovren.
The Croatian looked to have gotten the better of the forward, with a few yards advantage on him, but hesitancy to pull the ball out saw Lanzini close him down and put him under pressure.
In an attempt to muscle the defender off the ball, Lanzini fell to the ground - stirring a few laughs from the Kop as he nearly took out linesman - but a still hesitant Lovren took the ball back to his own byline, rather than passing to the open Mignolet, miscontrolled and invited the 22-year-old loanee to nip in, dispossess him and race goalwards.
What followed was a bit of fortune, as Clyne came across to clear the ball, inadvertently deflecting it off of Lucas and out to Noble on the edge of the area. He placed a side-footed effort into the bottom corner and West Ham found themselves with a 2-0 advantage, whilst Liverpool had only made their job 10 times harder.
Benteke given no room to breathe as visitors quell threat
Things couldn't have gone better for the away side in the first 30 minutes, and West Ham set about protecting their two-goal lead to take into the break.
Clearly, they knew that if Liverpool pulled one back, they would rally themselves shooting towards the Kop end in the second-half, and whilst they had done excellently thus far - a goal for Rodgers' side would change the outlook of the game completely.
The Hammers continued to stand strong in their numbers at the back, concentrating most of their defensive efforts around Benteke at the forefront of Liverpool's attack.
They ensured that every time the Reds looked to go aerially into Benteke, which they did frequently, Winston Reid and Angelo Ogbonna gave him very little space to get to the ball, or even if he did, he was dispossessed before he could hold it up and bring his team-mates into play.
Cheikhou Kouyate, who had a sublime game for West Ham, was pivotal - in keeping the striker quiet. From set-pieces and goal-kicks, the Senegalese positioned himself in front of Benteke and denied the Belgian any space to reach the ball, whilst the physically imposing duo of Reid and Ogbonna came over the back of the striker to win the aerial duels.
It was a near flawless plan and by the fact that they also closed down any potential crossing opportunities quickly, Benteke was starved of any real service - whilst the one-two link-ups between the likes of Firmino and Coutinho and the striker never really came off, partly due to a lack of space to do so - to the credit of the opposing back-line - but also because the Brazilians were below their usual standards.
This meant that whilst Benteke was crucial in the last two fixtures, proving a nuisance against Bournemouth as he won all 10 of his aerial duels, similarly so when he was the main outlet at Arsenal, he could not make an impact this time.
In turn, removing the ability of using their focal point seemed to leave Liverpool devoid of ideas, which West Ham obviously lapped up.
Changes make little... change for Liverpool
In order to add more threat down the flanks in the second half, Rodgers decided to bring Alberto Moreno on for Emre Can and switch to a back three system with wing-backs, as Clyne played down the right and Gomez took up a central defensive role.
Unfortunately, whilst the formation had its merits, in that it was meant to spread their play and add threats from the flanks, its effectiveness was nullified by Coutinho's red card, which gave the Hammers the numerical advantage at a crucial period of the game.
The absence of the Brazilian, easily the Reds' brightest player and their best so far this season, only made it increasingly harder for the Reds to get the ball up to Benteke - who has meant to be surrounded by players to feed off with the formation change.
To combat their lack of numbers, Rodgers brought on Danny Ings, which saw Liverpool adopt a 3-4-2 style formation, with no clear attacking midfielders, and wing-backs in Clyne and Gomez, trying to pull some of West Ham's defenders further wide.
But the fact they were down to 10 men meant they were unable to really hurt their opponents, even despite how lively and busy Ings was after he came off the bench.
Benteke continued to struggle as the Londoners stayed tight and stopped the supply into him, whilst the excellent midfield trio of Kouyate, Noble and Pedro Obiang - who too worked tirelessly throughout, ensured they had very few, if any, holes to pick.
That's not to say Liverpool didn't have opportunities, but they were unable to take them when they came their way. Milner wasted a chance on the edge of the area, slicing his strike wide of the post, whilst Lovren should have done much better in reacting to Benteke's knock down from a corner - as he could only flick the ball wide.
They were their best openings and elsewhere Liverpool were restricted to ambitious long-range shots - only one of which ended up on target, as Darren Randolph - enjoyed an easy afternoon aside from Firmino striking the woodwork from range in the first period.
And whilst referee Kevin Friend's ridiculous decision to send West Ham skipper Noble off with a few minutes remaining gave Liverpool the impetus to throw everything forward, they were caught too high up the pitch - and Sakho punished them with a third to cap things off for Bilić and co.
Reds made to pay for mistakes and lack of penetration
Compared to their recent back-to-back losses against Leicester City and Bournemouth, Bilić masterminded a tactical masterclass - one reminiscent of the way in which Chelsea upstaged the Reds' title charge on L4 two years ago.
It was the exact opposite of their display against the Cherries, when they themselves were largely restricted to aerial balls and set-pieces, were punished out on the flanks and succumbed to a number of avoidable errors at the back.
Against Liverpool, all of their players helped contribute to a perfect away performance, as Rodgers found himself outclassed by a manager of what, pre-match, was seen as an inferior team.
The fact that just a fraction of the home supporters were left inside the stadium by stoppage-time said it all. Actions speak louder than words, and the swathes of empty red seats revealed more about the faith in Rodgers than he'd like to admit.
His side were wasteful out wide, predictable and slow in possession, and yet again had no answers for a deep defensive set-up. They did have some positives to take away from the game, in the way that they pressed well and high up the pitch, dominating the ball - but their inability to trouble from out wide, with just six from their 26 attempted crosses successful, proved costly.
Liverpool and Rodgers must ensure that when they come up against set-ups such as West Ham's on home soil, they have the tools to break through the overloaded central zones or pose more of a threat from out wide, or else equally as disappointing results could continue to follow.