Sometimes, in the midst of insanity, you get a glimpse of an inner reality.

And in what can only be described as a truly mad game at the Britannia Stadium, we saw why Liverpool, for all their weakness in defence, still have a real shot at the title.

It is hard to know where to start with this ­breathtaking contest, but easy enough to know where to finish - with the Reds' world-class ability to do just that.

In Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, they have two strikers who can keep them in the hunt at the business end of the Premier League, for all the reasons offered here why they should not be.

Manchester United won the title last season because they had two outstanding goalscorers and you could argue that Liverpool's front two are even better.

In previous years, in fact for perhaps the last 20 years, Liverpool would have lost this game after throwing away a two-goal lead before half-time. That is why they had never won here before in the Premier League.

But they won because Suarez and Sturridge produced a world-class finish and a world-class assist apiece, to just about haul their side over the line, despite the best efforts of their defence to prevent them.

As Suarez said afterwards, victory here was always going to be a marker.

"We knew how important the win here was," he said with a smile.

Few teams win at the Britannia, and even fewer do it defending like this.

It certainly was not a game for the purists, which is a kind way of saying it was littered with errors. In fairness, the rain and wind were almost biblical and that explains the uncertainty underfoot which for a long period suggested Liverpool's title hopes would slide away.

Even after taking what appeared a comfortable first-half lead - thanks to some shocking defending from the home side - their mental block against Stoke produced a mini ­meltdown.

At least the Potters had an excuse for their woeful rearguard with Marc Wilson employed as an emergency centre-half.

It was his frailty alongside Erik Pieters - tormented all afternoon by the pace of Raheem Sterling - which inspired the comedy of errors and made the contest both farcical and fascinating.

Sterling was the obvious outlet for Liverpool and when his escape and cross found Aly Cissokho on five minutes, we were offered what was to be a portent of things to come as the defender's wild shot was deflected in off Ryan Shawcross.

Minutes later, it seemed Wilson had delivered the fatal blow to his side with a poor back header exacerbated by Shawcross's further mistake, leaving Suarez with a gift his talent hardly requires.

But then came the period that screams why Liverpool could struggle to keep pace with Manchester City and Chelsea.

They let Stoke back into the game when Kolo Toure went to sleep and allowed Peter Crouch acres of space to head home.

And Stoke were level, without doing much at all, when Jordan Henderson and Steven Gerrard in a deeper holding role contrived to give Charlie Adam a shooting chance he took with ­audacious style.

In the past, that would have been it for the visitors, and with it their title hopes.

But Sterling is growing up with every game, and capitalised on a clear handball to race away and claim a soft but justifiable penalty which Gerrard converted on his 650th appearance for the club.

Even then it was not over, despite Sturridge producing the moment of the game with a touch of genius to allow Suarez to finish with almost equal class, as more errors from Toure and Simon Mignolet allowed Jon Walters to sneak a tame shot into the net.

But Sturridge had the final word, as he showed why Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers gambled on an extra striker from the bench.

And that illustrated why it is folly, for all their frailities, to write off his Liverpool side.

No one scores five at Stoke. Yet they deservedly did. With ruthless style.

Source: Daily Mirror