Seeing Steven Gerrard return after six-and-a-half months out through injury must have been a real boost for Liverpool fans.
After back-to-back defeats away to Stoke and Tottenham - the performance in the latter being so poor that the Reds are fortunate they cannot be docked points for playing so badly - seeing their talismanic captain come off the bench for the final 16 minutes on Wednesday's Carling Cup win at Brighton was a real fillip.
Despite that, Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is not getting carried away, and plans on easing his skipper back into the fray. He will have to think carefully about how he deploys Gerrard when a Wolves team featuring hatchet man Karl 'Kelvin' Henry and man mountain George Elokobi visit Anfield on Saturday.
As such, Dalglish has pledged to be "intelligent" about how he reintroduces Gerrard into his expensively-bolstered midfield, and urged England manager Fabio Capello to do the same with the England team.
"I don't pick England's team," said Dalglish, before attempting to do just that.
"Whatever they have to do, they have to do. I just hope they are as intelligent as we have been.
"(Gerrard has) done fantastic coming back and it's fantastic for the whole club that he is back but the most important person in all of it is Steven himself.
"He's missed an awful lot of football through injury so he's done brilliantly to get where he is. We will just continue in the intelligent manner that we have done."
Such words from Kenny are rather canny. The Liverpool manager at once held his hands up and said he can't tell Capello how to do his job and dared him to not follow his lead in how to handle Gerrard's comeback.
Still, as both Liverpool manager and a proud Scotsman, Dalglish has little cause to concern himself with the fortunes of the England team, especially with his team playing matches against Everton and Manchester United either side of the Three Lions' trip to Montenegro for their final Euro 2012 qualifier on October 7.
As for Capello, he may just react to Dalglish's words with a characteristic shrug, head cocked to the side and mouth downturned. Looking either like a man deep in thought or one whomentally checked out of his job 12 months ago.
Gerrard has not played for England since he limped off in the friendly against France last November. The hamstring injury sustained in that 2-1 defeat at Wembley ruled the England vice-captain until after Christmas and cost the FA £500,000 in compensation. As such, Capello's paymasters may be quick to advise against him selecting Gerrard in a hurry.
Besides, since that loss England have gone six games unbeaten without him, and only need a point in Podgorica to book their place in the draw for next year's finals in Poland and Ukraine.
The rapid progress of Jack Wilshere (though currently injured), the belated adoption of Scott Parker and Ashley Young's burgeoning partnership with Wayne Rooney for club and country mean England have most bases covered when it comes to managing without Gerrard. Besides, if some reports this morning are to be believed, the Italian is busying himself considering a recall for Shaun Wright-Phillips at the moment.
Liverpool, meanwhile, could certainly do with their main man back as soon as possible. After groin surgery in March ruled him out for the final part of last season, the Reds were knocked out of Europe and missed out on a return to the Europa League via defeat to Tottenham at Anfield in the penultimate game of the campaign. They may have beaten Manchester City and put five past Birmingham and Fulham, but they also lost to West Brom - managed by former boss Roy Hodgson - and a faltering Aston Villa team in their final nine league games.
This season's two league wins have come against Arsenal and Bolton, teams currently in the bottom four of the table. The box-fresh midfield trio of Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing is still to combine well enough to exceed the sum of its parts, but Liverpool are crying out for leadership in the centre of the park, especially with two derby matches on the horizon.
Between Gerrard's comeback and Dalglish's warning to Capello, one bookie put out odds of 7/4 that Gerrard would start the Montenegro game, and 6/5 that he would last the full 90 minutes. There can't be too many punters taking that bet right now.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY: "All the people there are lovely. Everybody tries their best. They said it would help. That obviously wasn't the case. With my tendon injury, I've had to be a guinea pig for a lot of these treatments. I received some injections and after that my tendon was never the same. After the injections, I tried to get back on my feet, but it felt like I was made out of glass." - Owen Hargreaves opens up about his three-year injury nightmare while at Manchester United.
FOREIGN VIEW: "We are 10 points from the drop zone, the team are leading and we are playing well. These are the only things that I am looking at. We have won the four games we have played so far but all we can do is look to the next one against Getafe." - Real Betis manager Pepe Mel is keeping his feet firmly on the ground after his side went two points clear at the top of La Liga. The newly-promoted club beat Real Zaragoza in a remarkable 4-3 win which included two goals from Roque Santa Cruz. That name again: Roque. Santa. Cruz.
COMING UP: Comprehensive previews of the weekend's action, including match facts and team news for every Premier League game. Jim White and Paul Parker will be looking ahead to the upcoming fixtures, plus there is the Friday Fantasy Football webchat and the final part of our exclusive interview with Bolton boss Owen Coyle to come.
This evening you can follow live commentary of Brighton v Leeds in the Championship (19:45) while there is also full coverage of Australia v USA at the Rugby World Cup (09:30), the practice sessions ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix (11:00 & 14:30) and the Twenty20 clash at The Oval between England and West indies (18:15).