Contrary to what you may have thought this week, Liverpool are not a one man team. Rather than struggle in Luis Suárez's absence, Brendan Rodgers' side prospered with a performance and victory that highlighted the improvements he has overseen in his first season.
Rodgers admitted it had been a "traumatic week" for the football club because of Suárez's bite on the arm of Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic and subsequent 10-match ban, but it has ended in the best possible circumstances.
In contrast, this was a display and defeat that brutally exposed how far backwards Newcastle United have gone since last season's fifth-place finish and they may yet find themselves falling into the Championship.
With three games to go the excuses are exhausted and the goodwill has vanished. Newcastle supporters can forgive a lot, but they cannot accept heartless, characterless and clueless performances like this.
Newcastle were not just beaten, they were humiliated and manager Alan Pardew is the man who will, eight year contract or not, take the blame. He is fighting to save his job, whether he realises it or not. He can only hope he has enough in him to guide them to safety and then try to persuade owner Mike Ashley he deserves to remain in charge.
"Maybe it's been difficult for the foreign players to acclimatise and we didn't have team out there with a lot of [Premier League] experience," said Pardew, who will be mightily relieved Tottenham managed to hold Wigan to a draw earlier in the day "We were ragged after the third goal and I can't accept that from one of my teams. The fans have got every right to boo. That performance wasn't good enough.
"I expect all my players out on the training pitch on Monday morning even if they've got a foot hanging off because we've got to show we're all in this together.
"We've got to show we've got the heart for the scrap because other teams certainly have. We've been dragged down in a spiral of negativity."
Newcastle were truly awful and were two down inside the first 20 minutes. The first came after just three when Steven Taylor dawdled moving up to join the rest of the defensive line. Stewart Downing spotted the opportunity and delicately chipped a pass for Daniel Agger to send a glancing header past Rob Elliot.
Things went from bad to worse for the home side when Philippe Coutinho picked up the ball in the centre-circle. The Brazilian threaded an exquisite through ball to Daniel Sturridge, who drew Elliot off his line and then squared for Jordan Henderson to slot into the empty net.
Liverpool were utterly dominant and could have scored again. Sturridge shooting straight at Elliot when well-placed before Gerrard sliced an effort from the edge of the area.
Newcastle's fans responded by chanting for the introduction of substitute Hatem Ben Arfa. With shoulders slumped and heads bowed, those on the pitch looked like a defeated team. They may soon be a relegated one if they do not shake themselves out of their malaise.
Having spent heavily on French imports in January, there are now huge questions marks hanging over the core of this team regarding their willingness to roll their sleeves up and fight in an English relegation battle.
James Perch should have pulled a goal back before half-time when he put a free header over from five yards, but despite a brief flurry of attacks at the start of the second period, Newcastle were embarrassingly bad. Rarely have a team visibly given up in front of their own supporters in the manner the did after Sturridge scored Liverpool's third. Within minutes, Gerrard spotted another midfield run from Henderson, who returned the favour to Sturridge with a square pass which he slotted into the empty net.
Newcastle disintegrated completely, substitute Fabio Borini adding a fifth before Mathieu Debuchy got himself sent off for a stupid tackle on Coutinho. Henderson completed the rout straight from the resulting free-kick.
"It's been traumatic week for the football club, but we accepted that," said Rodgers. "Luis did wrong and he takes his punishment. We had to move on with a performance and we couldn't have done any more. We had a couple of group meetings to narrow our focus. The couple of days after it [Suárez bite] were difficult, but it's the manager's job to realign our focus on this football match.
"Luis is an outstanding player and I'm sure he will continue to be, but we have other players who can score goals, we're not overly reliant on him. That's a media thing.
"The way we pressed together and passed together, we've scored six and could have had more. We've shown enough this year to show we have improved and we have to keep pushing and pressing. These players want to learn and it bodes well."
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