Victory over Tottenham has more than prepared Liverpool for what could be a defining run of games

The win over Spurs had an importance beyond displaying their title challenge credentials, beyond propelling their early-season form

All the talk was of what a difference a year has made for Liverpool, but just as relevant is what a difference one result has made.

The 2-1 win away to Tottenham Hotspur has completely changed the outlook of the next few weeks, that involve a few games that could dictate and condition so much of the rest of the season.

Because, although there had been understandable excitement about Liverpool opening their season with four wins from four, it had been tempered by the knowledge it would be immediately followed by a very tough run. A run involving Spurs away, Chelsea away and Manchester City at home, with a Champions League opener against Paris Saint-Germain in the middle to further complicate things and demand even more from them, to sap that energy just a bit more.

All of that excitement could have been immediately and painfully excised.

The fact they lost 4-1 away to Spurs last year only further amplified the sense of consequence about all this.

And the fact they have very much consigned that humiliation to history, by reversing so much about it, now already changes the outlook for this run.

One down, two goals scored, another three points earned, five wins in a row and absolutely everything looking up.

That is why this win over Spurs had an importance beyond displaying their title challenge credentials, beyond propelling their early-season form.

It had multiple positives, not least preparing for this run that could condition so much of the season to come. They already go to into the next tough game without the pressure of previous dropped points from this one.

That itself is a highly influential psychological shift, as Klopp attempts to shift the mentality of the whole team to really come through for this title challenge.

And if you wanted to get coldly academic and pragmatic about this in a way that the German would never allow his team to get, it essentially means any defeat in these matches - given that at least one would usually be statistically likely - won’t be as damaging. They've given themselves even more security, to go with Virgil van Dijk and the transformed Gini Wijnaldum.

Klopp celebrates with his players after the win at Wembley (REUTERS)

That is the reality. It’s just a reality that Klopp won’t allow his players to even consider.

It would of course be very easy to overlook a match against Southampton in the middle of this, but the German is now very hardline about preventing that happening with his players. He knows well from his time at Borussia Dortmund - and previous failures at Liverpool - that winning a title is about such rhythm in all such games, not just the runs like this.

But this was one other factor that added to the layers of significance to this win. The last five minutes apart, Liverpool looked so sturdy, so durable - so well set up for runs like this. They just don’t look like they’re going to drop easy points in the way they have done in the past.

Klopp did make sure to acknowledge it’s not going to be that easy.

“I do not have the personality to wait for problems but I’m old enough to know they will come. Nobody plays a perfect season. Not even [Manchester] City last season. Five games, won all of them, fantastic. This was by far the best performance of the season. I like that.”

Everyone at Liverpool should now like the look of the next few weeks so much more.

They are not fixtures to be any way fearful about, or have trepidation about. They are matches to be excited about.

This is as important a difference as any.