A 4-1 mauling this time. On then to Aston Villa, admittedly struggling for form but still with as many away wins as anybody in the league. They too are very poor, and so five more goals go in. It should be about now that even the dimmest journalist starts to spot a pattern emerging here.

Could it be that these teams perform badly because, perish the thought, they are being made to look poor?

Maybe Benitez is not cracking up after all; maybe this is a decent side, when key players are fit and rested? Nope, because that would spoil the easiest story to write on a quiet day. And if he was to sign a new contract...

Rafa could be forgiven a wry smile or two after the events of the last two weeks. Widely doubted and ridiculed, he’s emerged from his most trying period with his hand as strong as ever, his reputation as a master tactician enhanced and the apparent source of much of his ire, Rick Parry, vanquished.

Houdini-like, he’s wriggled free from his restraints and smuggled them onto Old Red Nose, who has now taken to issuing delusional statements from a secret bunker in Hogwarts: celebrating 4-1 defeats, claiming Wayne Rooney is a calm young man anxious to see free-kicks taken quickly, and setting his staff ludicrous tasks researching meaningless transfer information.

He’ll be talking to the TV broadcasters through a dummy next. Still, no doubt he’ll re-emerge when his team start winning again, proclaiming them as the greatest of all time, despite their petulant and childish reactions when they don’t get their own way, despite their lack of humility, despite their lack of graciousness in defeat.

But maybe, just maybe, they’ll be celebrating only two second-rate trophies at the end of the season, and the real double will be heading towards the Reds from Anfield. Obvious all along.