Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard living the Anfield dream

It was one of those iconic European nights at Anfield and Liverpool's most iconic player delivered again, the captain destroying Napoli with a hat-trick. Competing in the Europa League might well be indicative of the decline in Liverpool's powers in the last two years but this was still a grand occasion, the first home game attended by the new owner John W Henry. Gerrard has always thrived on the emotional rush under the floodlights – but he has also suffered the emotional tumult of Liverpool's troubled last year.

"I love it here," he said as he made his way out of Anfield after the game. "That is what you play football for. As a young kid, I used to come to European nights and dream of playing in front of this crowd and winning big European nights." Exhilaration; pride; relief. Gerrard is back doing heroic things on the football field and Liverpool are a club that appear to be back on the right track. About time. "I think the last 12 months have been the most difficult since I was 18 and broke into the first team," he said.

Premier League is 'like the wild west', says new Liverpool owner John W Henry

The new owners of Liverpool, New England Sports Ventures, have admitted that adapting to the world of football has been a "culture shock" and that there are aspects of the way the game works which are "like the wild west."

John W Henry, the principal owner, and Tom Werner, the new chairman, have been shocked by the lack of transparency in football compared to American sport, the influence of agents and the power of players to push through transfers. "It's been a culture shock, there's no doubt about it," Henry said. "It's sort of like the wild west." In American sport, the salaries of players are available to the public, agents are strictly regulated and players only break contracts in exceptional circumstances.