At the tail end of October, Dimitar Berbatov appeared on Rio Ferdinand's podcast and pleaded for patience with Liverpool's struggling superstar summer signing Florian Wirtz. "He will be unbelievable, trust me," the Bulgarian told his former Manchester United team-mate. "I’m sure that everybody [at Liverpool] sees his quality, and they’ll give him that time that he needs to fit into the team. And I guarantee you, he’s going to be a success.

After all the drama provided by the Champions League in midweek, domestic action returned over the weekend, and it did not disappoint. Title races and battles to earn European spots are heating up around the continent, with there plenty of twists and turns still to come over the next three-and-a-half months.

Wirtz and Ekitike stepped up for Arne Slot as the big-money summer signings helped fire Liverpool to a comeback victory against Newcastle. When the Magpies took a deserved lead, the French forward took the game by the scruff of the neck and scored a quickfire brace to flip it on its head. The Reds then pressed home their advantage and ran out worthy 4-1 winners.

Liverpool sporting director Richard Hughes has a very cold, analytical approach to his role - so much so, in fact, that he was once described as "robot" by an agent who had dealt with him. Of course, being devoid of emotion probably wouldn't be such a bad thing for Hughes, given the nature of his job and the potential for being adversely affected by the wildly differing views on the work he's doing at Anfield.

Liverpool were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by relegation-threatened Burnley after Dominik Szoboszlai missed a penalty in a match where Arne Slot’s side squandered numerous opportunities to win at Anfield. Florian Wirtz fired the Reds in front, but it was a brilliantly-taken strike from Marcus Edwards which earned the second-bottom side a precious point.