Lightning struck twice for Luis Suarez at Carrow Road as the Uruguayan once again terrorised Norwich with a scintillating hat-trick to help Liverpool to a 5-2 victory.
Just as he was five months ago, the forward was simply unplayable, hammering home a variety of strikes, while Nuri Sahin and Steven Gerrard added their names to the scoresheet.
As the teams lined up, the Norwich supporters might have struggled to recognise some of the young faces in the Reds’ starting XI as Suso took to the field and Andre Wisdom was handed his Barclays Premier League debut by Brendan Rodgers.
Perhaps even more unfamiliar was the vivid orange, white and nightshade third strip the Liverpool players donned for the game.
But one face was all too recognisable to the home crowd, as it had been etched into their memory on a rainy Norwich afternoon in April, when hat-trick hero Suarez single-handedly demolished them.
And while the last stragglers were still taking to their seats on a sunny afternoon at Carrow Road, the Uruguayan returned to haunt them once more and fire the Reds ahead.
Crisp passing sent the ball skimming back and forth across the turf, pulling the opposition apart and carving holes in its formation.
Then the killer ball from Raheem Sterling, who collected play from Joe Allen and pivoted into space before sliding the ball into Johnson, who poked into Sahin.
Turner came across to dispossess him, but the ball ricocheted into the path of Suarez, who cut inside before arrowing the ball back across the face of goal and into the bottom corner of John Ruddy‘s net after two minutes of play.
For long spells of the game that followed, the Reds were irresistible.
Gerrard was imperious, sweeping the ball from left to right, Allen was industrious picking up the pieces and Sahin floated forward, forcing the ball through tiny gaps in the Norwich defence.
Wisdom and Glen Johnson bombed down both flanks to aid Suso and Sterling, who were full of trickery and ambition.
Suarez was clearly felled inside the penalty area in the 22nd minute a sharp elbow to the shoulder from Leon Barnett but Mike Jones waved away all appeals.
Norwich threatened when Simeon Jackson lashed the ball over the bar with a left-footed volley after Steve Morison nodded it back into his path.
Suso then fed Suarez, who clipped a superb pass into the path of Gerrard. The skipper met the ball with his head but Ruddy was out well to push his effort away.
Suarez was sent through on goal once more, but he side-footed wide when he really should have slotted. However, seconds later the Uruguayan stole play from Michael Turner, nutmegged him and then sent the ball curling past Ruddy with a fine right-footed effort.
After the restart, the Reds were fortunate to maintain their two-goal lead when Andrew Surman smashed the ball towards goal, but Robert Snodgrass deflected his effort over the bar as he tried to turn it home.
At the other end, the Reds responded in style. Suarez slalomed down the right and at the second time of asking, slipped a pass into Sahin, who rolled the ball home from yards out.
Minutes later, Suarez got his hat-trick. Sterling started the move that finished with Sahin slotting the ball into the Uruguayan, who took a touch to compose himself before calmly curling past Ruddy.
On the hour-mark, Pepe Reina beat a Russell Martin effort out into the path of Morison, who fired into the bottom corner to make it 4-1.
But the Reds refused to sit back and Gerrard clinched their fifth after fine work from Sterling down the right flank before substitute Grant Holt whipped the ball past Reina to make it 5-2.
Liverpoolfc.com journalists’ man of the match: Luis Suarez.
