There was only one change from the West Ham game which saw the inured Gerrard replaced by Lucas and as such it meant a first game as captain for Luis Suarez. The visitors could have taken the lead inside the first minute as stand-in captain Suarez attempted to pick out Coutinho but the Brazilian failed to connect properly and the shot proved that as he failed to score.
Liverpool continued to push for an opener as Suarez hit wide but within minutes he was the architect of the first goal as he was picked out by Sterling and attempted to set up Henderson who flicked back the one-two pass and saw the Uruguayan skip through the defence and tap the ball past Lloris.
Lloris was called on to deny Suarez three minutes later as the denied the attacker in a one-on-one and Suarez came close to an assist as he put Coutinho through on goal but saw the resulting shot cannon of the crossbar. Spurs had a chance but Chadli failed to test Mignolet with a header and the miss could have proved costly when Suarez latched on to a mistake from Lloris but with an open goal in sight he failed to shoot before the 'keeper had recovered and denied him a second goal.
Sterling spotted and found Coutinho who in turn found Henderson and he tested Lloris who could only clear into the path of Suarez who hit for goal and forced an acrobatic stop from the Frenchman who saw his work undone as Henderson collected the ball and volleyed home for a 2-0 lead.
Tottenham did have the ball in the net before half-time but it was chalked off as in the build-up, Mignolet made a mistake in the area an allowed Soldado to challenge him but the Spaniard looked to out muscle the Belgian who went to ground and Soldado hit the ball into the open net only to be stopped in his celebration by the referee declaring a foul.
Sakho only had the post in his way as he came close to his second goal in the space of a week as he headed at the far post but saw his attempt rebound off the post with the resulting chance from Skrtel going over, Tottenham's push to get back into the game suffered a massive blow in the 62nd minute as Paulinho received a straight red card for a high foot on Suarez and that all but signalled that the Liverpool would avenge their previous visits to the Lane.
They increased the lead with a surprise scorer as Henderson played a clever back heeled nutmeg to Suarez and he crossed to the back post where to the surprise of the Spurs defence the unmarked Flanagan swept home a superb volley for his first Liverpool goal and was the base for an amazing team celebration.
Seven minutes to go and up popped the mercurial Suarez once again as he lifted the ball over the onrushing Lloris for his second and Liverpool's fourth as the pressure on AVB began to grow.
Liverpool had not finished yet and punished the frail Spurs defence once more as Suarez turned provider and picked out Sterling who hit home for the fifth and a rich reward for a brilliant performance and as the final whistle went, the visitors and their fans were jubilant in handing Tottenham their worst defeat for 16 years.
As I write, the result proved to be the last straw for Tottenham as yesterday saw the sacking of Andre Villas Boas despite him having a 54% win percentage but it seems the reverse on Sunday coupled with the 6-0 demolition they were given by Man City last month left the board with no choice.
Personally, I felt sorry for AVB as it was plainly obvious that the selling of Bale and the influx of 100m of 'talent' was done out of his control and that chairman Levy chose to use the manager as a scapegoat for his failings so as I highlighted on Twitter, I would take great pleasure in seeing Spurs stutter this season in the league in order for Levy to see that it would be his fault and not the manager.
Meanwhile, Liverpool move on to host Cardiff on Saturday with the prospect of being top of the league at Christmas if Arsenal fail to beat Chelsea on Monday night and would do so for the first time since the title challenge in 2009 then derailed by the famous 'Rafa Rant'.
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