Liverpool Moves Out from Under Gerrard's Shadow

The 'Pool looked at their best yesterday, as Sunderland had to face the wrath of a club upstaged.

Lately, the headline-stealing stir surrounding the club's Greatest Ever going out to pasture -- and a lucrative one at that -- has been welcome on the PR front. After all, the face of the franchise wouldn't be returning in rival colors to haunt the Reds.

But for those still paying attention, the club's suck-o-meter has been pegging lately. Brendan Rogers' crew needed to dominate a match, and that's what happened here. The result may have been 1-0, but it was never that close.

The Reds vanquished any chance of drama early when Lazar Marković took a superb wall pass and finished his run.

A friendly bounce or two, but who cares, dude? You scored your first.

Later, the Stadium of Light witnessed an amazing attempt from afar by Marković:

Frankly, that corner's harder to hit than the goal itself.

The footballing stats were all in Liverpool’s favor, so Liam Bridcutt’s red didn't help the Black Cat cause one bit.

Apart from Gerrard, the spotlight was also on mercurial Mario Balotelli. Everyone's been waiting for Mario to get the magic mushroom and be great, but it's just not happening.

Mario came in like a Jaguar, but he just couldn’t turn like one.