It is easy to forget Liverpool have got into this position, one trophy in the bag and in a strong place to win up to three more, with their talisman missing for the last three months.
When the Reds were cruising to win after win in the first half of the season, there was a feeling - on Merseyside and beyond - that it could all come crashing down in January, when Mohamed Salah jetted off to the Africa Cup of Nations.
Salah did that and then some, with the Egyptian suffering an injury at the tournament in the Ivory Coast that has seen him start just one game for his club since New Year’s Day.
But here we are, going into the March international break, with Liverpool still ploughing past teams, having jumped the tall hurdle of being without their best player for a significant percentage of the season.
To compare their trophy charge to a horse on the week of the Cheltenham festival, Liverpool have been heavily handicapped, not to mention a rippling injury crisis across the team.
But with trainer Jurgen Klopp striving for greatness whoever is in the XI - ‘it’s not about who plays, it’s how they play,’ he often says - Liverpool are still flying.
That, though, can surely only get better now Salah is fully fit. His goal and a hat-trick of assists against Sparta Prague in this 6-1 thrashing just sent a reminder of his unique talents and importance to this team.
His goal took his tally to 20 for the season for the seventh successive campaign. No player in the illustrious history of Liverpool has done that, further underlining his case as one of the greatest players to grace the Anfield turf.
It must have also sent shockwaves to Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta ahead of the final stretch of the season, not to mention Erik ten Hag ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Old Trafford in the FA Cup on Sunday.
‘In seven years together with him, the one problem we never had was consistency,’ said Klopp. ‘Mo is just delivering and delivering and delivering, his desire doesn’t stop, his quality is there and his desire to score doesn’t stop.
‘He has improved in so many aspects since he started here. That’s how it is, he will not stop. I’m less surprised than maybe some others, I thought it had already happened to be honest but he was injured for a while, otherwise he would have done it in January or February. But great, very good, and great to have him back.’
Liverpool have rounded many obstacles this season, but any hopes they might fall flat in the final weeks of the campaign should be dispelled by the return of the Egyptian King Salah.