Ange Postecoglou mused recently about hope and the inherent futility of it with the way that things have gone for Tottenham this season. Every time the manager had seen “light at the end of the tunnel”, he said, it had “usually been an oncoming train”.

It was an appropriate way to describe Liverpool, who did not so much roll into the Carabao Cup final, their first such showpiece under Arne Slot, as steamroll their way there. They refused to countenance any other outcome and they utterly flattened Spurs. Who can stop Liverpool this season? It is the question on everybody’s lips as they look down from the summit of the Premier League and eye glory in the Champions League and FA Cup, too.