After spending the last two months prising the door open towards a Premier League title challenge, Liverpool kicked it firmly off the hinges at the Emirates.
And now it promises to be quite the sprint finish between two of the greatest teams we have surely ever seen in English football. Game on, indeed.
If it comes down to a straight shootout between Liverpool and Manchester City, then Jurgen Klopp will feel he has the greater weaponry available to him. His substitutions alone were proof of that here against Arsenal as Roberto Firmino added to Diogo Jota's 18th of the season after joining the fray with a certain Mohamed Salah in the second half.
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It's easy to see why Gary Neville calls it a "joke of a frontline" when you consider the wealth of attacking options Klopp has at his disposal. Have Liverpool ever had this kind of strength in depth up top?
In a perverse sort of way, City's Selhurst stumble on Monday night meant that a draw here would not have represented a bad result, but it would have felt like a kick in the gut from Brock Lesnar had maximum points not been taken in north London.
Even allowing for a renewed Arsenal’s huge upturn of form and fortune of late, the Reds went into this one having won five of the last six against the Gunners by a scoreline of 19-5. The one match they didn’t win in that run was after they had already been crowned champions of England in July 2020.
It has looked at a number of points already this season like an insurmountable task to haul back Pep Guardiola's men and deny them a third title in four years, so to just be at this particular juncture in mid-March is applaudable.
The 2-2 draw with Chelsea at the start of 2022 left them staring at an 11-point gap before City extended that to 14 later that month. Liverpool, though, have ensured their games-in-hand have counted and their now nine-match winning sequence has been enough to chip away at that deficit to leave it virtually non-existent.
City's defeat at home to Tottenham last month, either side of costly draws at Southampton and Crystal Palace, have been enough to take full advantage and set up what will now likely be a thrilling dash. But Klopp knows that none of it will be recalled in years to come with any kind of affection if a 20th league title is not nestled inside the Anfield trophy room in the summer months.
Just one point now separates the teams Jamie Carragher labelled as "the best two in Europe" this week and with both still in the FA Cup and Champions League, fate may yet conspire to see these old foes face off a further four times before all is said and done.
Quite who would fancy that prospect, however, is another question entirely. Both Guardiola and Klopp would loathe to take on that kind of schedule in the final weeks of an exacting term and it is surely hoped that the Champions League draw presents much more agreeable pairings at the AXA Centre and the Etihad Campus on Friday morning.
Salah was not deemed fit enough to start after his foot injury at Brighton, so the Egyptian was left in reserve as Jota stepped in and Thiago Alcantara returned to the team in midfield.
A run of eight wins in the last 11 that included five in a row before kick-off for Mikel Arteta's side has put them in the driving seat for that final top-four spot, but the litmus test for their renewed reputation was always going to be how they handled a Liverpool team chasing an unprecedented quartet.
And once Jota had breached Aaron Ramsdale's near post early in the second half, it felt like it was never really going to be anything other than another Liverpool victory. That's now 28 points claimed from the 30 on offer this calendar year.
Arteta's men were sharper in the first half but never truly looked like scoring however as the Reds' rearguard - one that has conceded just four Premier League goals in 2022 - stood firm with Andy Robertson, in particular, excelling against the dangerous Bukayo Saka.
Liverpool soaked up the pressure impressively but were unable to counter-attack with their usual menace, lacking the fluidity we have come to expect from them up top.
After the break Thiago had Alisson Becker to thank for keeping it goalless after his poor back-pass got Alexandre Lacazette in behind before Martin Odegaard's effort was palmed over the bar. It was a superb intervention from the Brazil goalkeeper.
Alisson had barely been called into the action in the 50 or so minutes that preceded it but a huge right arm kept out Odegaard and the Norwegian simply could not believe it. That's clean sheet No.16 of the campaign for Alisson for those keeping score, he is as important to this Liverpool as anyone else.
As Salah and Firmino prepared to enter with less than an hour on the clock, Thiago made amends for his slack pass backwards to play a sumptuous one forward for Jota to rifle past Ramsdale and give Reds the lead.
It was the Portuguese's seventh goal against Arsenal as a Liverpool player and his last act of the match. Off he went to the sound of his catchy terrace anthem ringing out from the away end. They knew just how important it was.
Firmino doubled the advantage when he squeezed home the outstanding Robertson's low cross before darting straight to the away end in wild celebration. The Brazilian's calling card has been his flamboyant routines during his time at Anfield but this had a raw quality to it as he made an immediate beeline for the delirious Reds supporters.
And what a thought it will be for Klopp and his players to know that victory on the other side of the international break, at home to Watford on April 2, will send them top of the table before the pressure is piled back on to Guardiola and co, who meet Burnley at Turf Moor later that day.
Liverpool have scratched and clawed their way back into real, genuine contention. Now it is set to get really interesting. Buckle up.
