Gulf in class has Norwich faltering

English FA Premiership: Another mismatch has yielded another swashbuckling Liverpool win, though it would be dangerous to draw too many conclusions from an occasion such as this. Other, perhaps, than the obvious.

Liverpool continue to beat the Premiership's also-rans with the panache they lacked last term, their latest riotous home victory coming against a Norwich side still finding the gulf in class since promotion utterly unbridgeable.

Yet judging what real progress has been made under Rafael Benitez will have to wait for more testing opposition; this was nothing more than a routine stroll.

A sumptuous drive from Milan Baros and a deflected Luis Garcia goal before the half-hour, the Spaniard having already struck a post, ensured this was the ideal preparation for this morning's flight to Athens.

Olympiakos will prove more of a challenge in the Champions League tomorrow, though the manner in which Liverpool dismantled a side which had defended stubbornly and successfully in their two previous league games was encouraging.

Last season the hosts would have laboured. These days there is too much creation and width in their ranks for limited opponents to stifle.

Blanket defence when visiting Anfield no longer offers almost guaranteed reward when confronted with Xabi Alonso, stringing passes for fun from central midfield, and wingers who stretch the play. With Harry Kewell absent, the 22-year-old Stephen Warnock deputised with relish.

The academy graduate spent last season on loan at Coventry, where his form earned him the player of the year award, as he attempted to resurrect a once-promising career threatened by the two broken legs suffered whilst playing in the youth ranks.

"The second time I broke the leg I really thought about packing it all in," he said. "But having something like that happen to you drives you on more to be successful. You realise what you are missing so, when you come back, you grab the opportunity with both hands.

"When I was loaned out to Coventry it was do or die for me. My career was either going to kick off or I was going to stay there. I didn't think I would get a chance to show what I could do here, but it's a different life now."

Warnock was excellent on Saturday, adding pace on the flank to Alonso's polish in the middle, though this Liverpool team is still very much a work in progress.

Djibril Cisse is still too peripheral for comfort, spending much of this victory flapping his arms in frustration. He was limping on the hour, only to revive by spanking a 20-yard drive from Alonso's short free-kick routine into the net.

That gave the scoreline the gloss Liverpool's superiority clearly merited and deflated those in luminous yellow camped in the Anfield Road end, though the travelling party should not take their inadequacies too much to heart.

Their toils, like those of the other newly promoted clubs, simply illustrate the ridiculous chasm which the money-flushed Premiership has delighted in opening up between the elite and the rest.

Nigel Worthington described this as a "ruthless" division and insisted the runaround endured would "do us no harm".

Gary Megson and Iain Dowie have muttered similar mantras this term. At some stage the monotony of this season will become demoralising, regardless of whether City are visiting stadiums they have not graced regularly for almost a decade. For the moment, there is still a novelty value even in such a convincing defeat.