Liverpool 2-1 Southampton: Alexander Isak scores his first Reds goal before Hugo Ekitike is sent off for celebrating late winner - as Arne Slot's side limp through with narrow win

Me? Really? Alexander Isak’s eyes were wide and his smile was disbelieving as he walked towards Anfield’s tunnel but was stopped from joining his team-mates.

The major objective of the night had been completed. Isak had taken the chance to score his first goal for Liverpool with the relish of an impatient batsman pilfering an easy single. The locals loved it and why wouldn’t they, given then expectation that a £125million transfer free brings?

Quick-thinking from Federico Chiesa, an instinctive dart into space and Isak compounded the error Southampton goalkeeper Alex McCarthy had made, conceding possession so cheaply, by sweeping a shot into the Anfield Road End net. They had been waiting for this moment and how they enjoyed it.

But the man himself? Perhaps he had envisaged being greeted with slaps on the back as he made his way off at the interval – you could certainly tell he wasn’t expecting to see Aaron Briggs, one of Arne Slot’s coaching team, ordering him back out to do some high intensity sprinting.

Isak will have known he was moving into a different orbit when that £125million move was completed but here was a very public example of the standards that are now expected from him: yes, he had done well – but there is still oh so much to do.

Yes, there was contentment from Liverpool’s technical staff and his new team-mates that a statistic had been chalked off but there wasn’t too much else Slot will have enjoyed on a night when the team who have made this competition their own played as if their minds were elsewhere.

Hugo Ekitike, clearly, couldn’t have been thinking straight as he was sent-off after scoring a late winner for Liverpool – don’t be shocked, they nearly always score after the 85th minute – and there is no question Slot will have been enraged.

Ekitike, unfathomably, took off his shirt after sliding in another Chiesa pass to break Southampton’s hearts – even referee Tom Brammall looked bewildered that he had to administer another yellow card to the young Frenchman in such preposterous circumstances.

It was that kind of night. Slot looked exasperated once again as Liverpool needlessly conceded an equaliser to Shea Charles late in the second half, an equaliser that was deserved and owed nothing to good fortune.

There is a vulnerability about the Premier League champions defensively and, again, it showed.

Southampton are struggling to find a rhythm in the league under new head coach Will Still but, free of the pressure that accompanies the grind of trying to win three points each week, they took what was a free shot and almost knocked Liverpool clean out.

Quite how the game would have unfolded had, in the 42nd minute, Southampton taken the glorious chance that came their way is anyone’s guess but it would not have out of keeping had they gone into the interval with the advantage rather than Liverpool.

Adam Armstrong hit the bar after a quick break and Leo Scienza somehow contrived to head wide of a gaping goal with Giorgio Mamardashvili, the Georgia international making his Liverpool debut, stricken on the ground.

Football is cruel and, in the next attack, Liverpool went up the field, McCarthy tried to play out in his six yard area – sometimes coaches and players can be too clever for their own good – and Liverpool had smashed their visitors on the nose to eye-watering effect.

To think, though, it could have all been so easy. All strikers dream of making the perfect start in a game and the opening with which Isak was presented after just 44 seconds gave him the most glorious opportunity to get his tally up and running.

There he was, on his favoured right foot with only McCarthy to beat but, for a fraction of a second, he paused before getting his shot away: the lapse was just enough to give Southampton’s goalkeeper to make himself into a human starfish and the danger was averted.

Perhaps that set the tone as Liverpool, with so many changes in their ranks, were scratchy. The crowd was quiet, having turned expecting a comfortable victory, and when the tone is slow, it can be hard to crank it up.

Chiesa, such a popular figure, did his best to chivvy everyone along and he was a bright spark, as was the youthfully exuberant Rio Ngumoha. Mamardashvili also showed plenty of characteristics that suggests, one day, he will be a worthy successor to Alisson Becker.

When Charles scored in the 76th minute, you assumed Mamardashvili would have another role to play in a penalty shootout but, Liverpool being Liverpool, there would be more late drama and a winning goal.

Yet at the final whistle, there was a barely a smile from Slot – and after Ekitike’s silliness, you couldn’t blame him.