Liverpool surpassed Manchester United's legendary 2007/08 team by reaching 89 points for the season with a win over Aston Villa.The Reds were playing their first ever game at Anfield as incumbent Premier League champions and facing a relegation-battling side looked the perfect opportunity for them to get back on track.Despite making history with the 19th league title in their history, Jurgen Klopp's men have been wading through some patchy form since returning from the three-month pause in action.A drab 0-0 draw at Goodison Park might have been followed up by a 4-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace, but the club's first game as champions ended in embarrassing style at Manchester City.The very club that the Merseysiders dethroned to claim the title dished out a 4-0 battering courtesy of Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden and an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain own goal.

Slow start at Anfield

However, you wouldn't have noticed much in the way of progress during the early exchanges against Aston Villa and the first-half played out as a forgettable 0-0 draw.

Divock Origi totted up some embarrassing statistics as the unexpected lone striker and a few fancy flicks from Douglas Luiz and Anwar El Ghazi were as exciting as proceedings got.

Thankfully for entertainment purposes, Alisson Becker and Pepe Reina were finally called into action during the second-half, but the drab affair prompted Klopp to make changes nonetheless.

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Mane breaks the deadlock

The introduction of Georginio Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson and Roberto Firmino came as a clear statement from Klopp that he didn't want to drop points for the third league game in four.

But it was three of the starters that combined as Liverpool FINALLY broke the deadlock on 71 minutes with Sadio Mane rounding off a brilliant move by Trent Alexander-Arnold and Naby Keita.

There was visible relief on the faces of the Liverpool players as the ball crossed the line past Pepe Reina and off the crossbar. Check out the goal down below:

Curtis Jones makes it 2-0

Things then got even better for Liverpool as Curtis Jones, making just his third Premier League appearances of the season, bagged his first goal in the competition to put the game to bed.

Check out the youngster's brilliant strike on his gradual road to a winners' medal:

Historic points tally for Liverpool

It goes to show that even when you've already won the league, you still need to grind out some ugly victories in order to chase the history and records.

And Liverpool's progression to an impressive 89 points means they surpass the United squad of 2008 that featured Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney.

It also saw them move past other champions' points tallies in the form of Arsenal (2001/02), Chelsea (2009/10) & (2014/15) and Manchester City (2013/14).  

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That, for the record, means more points than the first ever Premier League team to score 100 goals in a single season and the City side that profited from Steven Gerrard's infamous slip.