A Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge partnership might just set the English Premier League alight this season.
The two strikers were in brilliant goalscoring form, with Sturridge grabbing one - with his arm -- and setting up the other two for Suarez, as Liverpool piled further misery on bottom side Sunderland with a 3-1 win.
Emanuele Giaccherini got what proved to be a consolation goal for Sunderland, who gave it a right old go in the second half after being 2-0 down at halftime.
Liverpool climbed to second in the Premier League table with the win, ahead of Tottenham on goal difference with 13 points from six matches. Sunderland stay rock bottom with just a solitary point all season.
Brendan Rodgers stuck with the 3-5-2 formation, while there was a recall for Sunderland midfielder Lee Cattermole, who was greeted with tremendous cheers from the home crowd.
Sunderland did not look like a side marooned at the bottom in the first few minutes, with the home side making most of the running.
Sebastian Larsson was really unlucky not to give Sunderland the lead, when he saw his thunderous freekick from 22 yards strike the crossbar with Simon Mignolet, making a return to his former side, well beaten.
Mignolet, in fact, looked quite nervous and lost for Liverpool, making quite a few flaps from corners, and far from dominating his goal.
However, despite all of Sunderland's good play, it was Liverpool that got their noses in front in the 28th minute, and under controversial circumstances.
A cross swung in from the left found its way through to Sturridge in the six-yard box, with the Liverpool striker seemingly stopping to head home from close range; however, replays clearly showed the ball had struck Sturridge's arm, instead of his head and should have really been disallowed.
In a phase of play where nothing went Sunderland's way, the home side had a decent penalty shout, then were denied an indirect freekick inside the box when Kolo Toure seemed to pass one to his goalkeeper.
And before the protests had even died down completely, Liverpool were two up. Steven Gerrard found Sturridge on the left with a wonderful long ball, with the striker then taking his time before firing a low cross for Suarez to tap-in.
Sunderland came fired up and determined to find a way back in the second half, and they got their due rewards early on.
After Adam Johnson had fired a shot wide, Ki decided to take his turn. The South Korean's stinging low shot could only be parried by Mignolet, with Giaccherini reacting quickest to slot home the rebound in the 52nd minute.
Craig Gardner then forced a flying save from Mignolet, before Moses tested Kieren Westwood at the other end.
Suarez also had a couple of chances on the break to put the result beyond doubt, before finally sealing the result in Liverpool's favour.
The Uruguayan dinked a ball over the top to Sturridge, who did well to beat his man on the inside left channel before laying the ball back to Suarez to slot home from six yards a minutes from time.
In the early game, a Johnny Howson strike was enough for Norwich to pick up a 1-0 away win over Stoke at the Britannia Stadium.
The win propelled Norwich to the same number of points as their opponents with both the sides on seven points from six matches.
