For 45 - or more specifically 47 - minutes, Southampton matched Liverpool on Saturday afternoon. Having amassed huge confidence across a transformative run of form, they looked fearless in the Premier League's toughest fixture. And yet, they left Anfield heavily beaten.

That's because the league leaders produced a truly irresistible second-half attacking display, culminating in Mohamed Salah's nonchalant, lobbed fourth in the 90th minute. Symbolically, he had the Saints' defence scrambling at his feet before the delightful finish.

Liverpool's command of the title race owes more to their impeccable attitude than to their quality - they have an unrivalled capacity to win games where they are far from their best - but here they simply oozed class.

They are, at the time of writing, 22 points clear of the chasing pack, and still, remarkably, they keep getting better, week-by-week.

Is Henderson performing better than anybody else?

Jordan Henderson is now the fourth-favourite to be named Premier League Player of the Year, behind Sadio Mane, Kevin de Bruyne and Virgil van Dijk.

Each of the three front-runners are in their own way awe-inspiring, Mane for his goalscoring and his venom, De Bruyne for his defence-scything passing and Van Dijk for his effortless defensive brilliance.

Henderson is, by comparison, unspectacular. But he has shown himself to be a complete central midfielder, and he is leading Liverpool on the most imperious title march in history.

The 29-year-old carries out the battling defensive aspects of his role with a palpable hunger, but he brings far more than an exemplary passion, as demonstrated today by his excellent assist for Salah's first goal, 11 minutes after he had calmly doubled Liverpool's lead himself.

He has now been directly involved in seven league goals this season, more than in 2018/19 and 2017/18 combined. 

Come May, he will be thrusting the Premier League trophy aloft. It will be a truly historic image, one which will induct Henderson into the pantheon of great Liverpool midfielders.

If the footballing world can truly claim to appreciate the finer arts of the game, then Henderson simply has to be in contention for the top individual prize. 

Salah could emulate two icons

Mohamed Salah, meanwhile, is setting out to become only the third player in the Premier League history - after Alan Shearer and Thierry Henry - to win the golden boot for three consecutive seasons.

He significantly boosted his prospects here with two goals, his sixth and seventh in six meetings with Southampton.

He is now within three of pace-setter Jamie Vardy, whose scintillating early-season momentum has stalled. 

Crucially, the Egyptian, who took both of his goals with aplomb, is back in peak condition after nursing an ankle problem for several games in the autumn following a challenge from Hamza Choudhury in the 2-1 win over Leicester.

And Liverpool's run of fixtures lends itself to a goalscoring frenzy: Norwich, West Ham, Watford, Bournemouth - against all of whom he has found the net already this season. 

It could well be between Salah and 16-goal Sergio Aguero for the honour.

Given that he has dramatically increased Liverpool's firepower, could you perhaps make the argument that he has been just as integral to their emergence as the best team in the world as Alisson and Virgil van Dijk?

'I  have no clue how Alisson does it'

For his part, Alisson has now racked up nine clean sheets from 18 appearances, a tally matched only by Sheffield United's virtually ever-present Dean Henderson.

And so, with last season's closest challenger Ederson two behind, he is in pole position to make it two Golden Glove awards in two seasons.

Those who don't watch Liverpool might assume he posts those numbers without breaking a sweat, shielded by an excellent defence.

But even against mid-table opposition, he has to work hard to preserve the shutouts. In the last two games, for instance, he has been called into action on eight occasions, making as many saves here as Alex McCarthy and, in midweek, more than Lukasz Fabianski.

And those are not token catches, as Jurgen Klopp explained:

"What Ali's doing with these finishes, I have no clue how he's doing that.

"I think the finishes were pretty good, it's just that he was there."

In short, he is routinely making the difficult look straightforward, and perhaps quietly demonstrating that he is the best in the goalkeeping business.

A truly perfect mentality

But when Liverpool players insist publicly that they have are anything but preoccupied with achieving this recognition, there is a genuine sincerity about them.

The media often dismiss instances of humility from footballers, and that's understandable, but now that we are witnessing the ultimate season, we have grounds to believe them.

And so when Henderson says that he cares little about Player of the Year gossip, when Salah, regardless of occasional moments of selfishness, says that the team comes first, and when Alisson inevitably credits his defence for setting the benchmark, maybe it isn't just the interview training kicking-in. 

No football manager has been, or will be, able to build a team ethic stronger than this, an ethic, incidentally, embodied by Roberto Firmino, the conductor, who simply must get a mention after assisting three of the four goals. 

Even with Liverpool already on a points tally that would be enough to secure Champions League football, there's not even a jot of complacency.

According to Ralph Hasenhuttl, they are currently 'unbeatable' because they never underestimate the opponents before them.

When the Reds hang on during spells of pressure, when they win finely-balanced games by a single goal, as they have 11 times this season, it might appear that they are fortunate. But to suggest as much is to do this team is a gross injustice.

The law of averages would have kicked in long ago. As it is, Liverpool have 100 points from the last 102 available. 

They are simply one of the most impressive teams ever assembled in the top leagues of European football. And this is their time. 

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