Don't get them angry. Surely they should have known that? All Unai Emery would have wanted was for his players to turn Anfield into a doctor's waiting room, filled with silence and tension, but instead they poked the bear.
The game Liverpool dared not lose became the game they gleefully won, fuelled by the energy of a crowd that acted as a 12th man, bellowing approvingly of every thunderous tackle and hollering disdainfully of every perceived wrong decision: Villa walked wide-eyed into a trap and paid the price.
Here was an exorcism of Wednesday's League Cup elimination against Crystal Palace, when Slot's team selection put him under a microscope.