A more expensively procured Premier League goal is currently impossible to fathom.

Bradley Barcola’s industrious assist for Alexander Isak’s simple finish against Brighton arguably increased the interest payments rather than paying a fraction of their fees back, thanks to the former’s £17m in performance-related add-ons. But Liverpool will view that as a necessary and desired consequence of this team’s progression.

It has not and was never going to be straightforward under Andoni Iraola. The foundational cracks papered over by last year’s title burrowed deep into this squad, this team and its collective mentality. Their regrettable surrender to Manchester City was just two weeks ago.

Yet either side of that heavy Anfield defeat, Liverpool have sailed into the heart of the Premier League’s supposed Bermuda Triangle and ironically found themselves.

The killer Bs of Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton, that trio of well-run fun, those xG boffins and laptop nerds, the scourge of the elite, have each been vanquished by Liverpool in the last month or so, their data-based visages undone by the most expensive player in British football history scoring from a combined yardage Dirk Kuyt would be proud of.

While the structures at Brentford and Bournemouth are exceptional, Brighton’s scouting, recruitment and ability to seamlessly embed players is peerless. But few equations can be simplified as effectively as a £123m winger setting up a £125m forward to crown another hard-fought win.

With Liverpool’s other nine-figure forward underlining his own continued personal development in a way which suits both supporters and detractors – this was a solid performance but his wild strike deflecting in off Pascal Gross rendered it an own goal and appeased the G/A disparagers – the Reds can reflect on an imperfect but encouraging last few games.

This was a return to a vaguely unconvincing but ultimately effective defensive resolve, typified by the beloved Ronald Araujo’s patented head-tackling, and Trey Nyoni’s first contribution as a substitute being a divine intervention to stop Maxim De Cuyper capping a wonderful Brighton move with a deficit-halving goal.

A calm, Paolo Maldini-coded, ‘If I have to tackle I have already made a mistake’ performance of complete authority this was not. Brighton had their chances – more shots and possession – but a Liverpool body was invariably thrown on the line when it mattered.

At the other end in those moments, the Seagulls were strewn. Gross had his poor pass from inside his own area punished by the lurking Wirtz, before the tormented Olivier Boscagli was robbed and roadrunnered into the ground by the relentless Barcola.

The Frenchman’s Mesut Ozil bounce pass into Isak blended immaculately with the determination and pressing which preceded it.

That mismatch down Brighton’s left defined the game and undermined any meticulous tactical plan Fabian Hurzeler might have devised. One shot on target from 16 attempts will bring even the most brilliant strategy crashing down.

But Liverpool deserve credit for that too. Their concession of just one goal with 11 men on the pitch since their first two Premier League games is the product not of coincidence or happenstance, but hard work, diligence and Araujo entirely fairly clattering opposition players on the edge of his own box.

Mix that with £248m worth of forwards justifying rather than contradicting their transfer fees, and Liverpool do appear closer now than at any other point in the last 18 months to have figured it out.