The Hammers came into this contest unbeaten in four and on their best run under Julen Lopetegui, but it was immediately apparent they were completely outmatched here.
The visitors were relentless in their attacks, with Alphonse Areola making a hat-trick of impressive early saves to deny Mohamed Salah, Curtis Jones, and Luis Díaz.
The hosts’ resistance was finally broken on the half-hour in somewhat fortuitous circumstances though, as Vladimír Coufal’s interception on a Díaz through ball dropped back to the Colombian and allowed him to slot home at the near post.
The only crumb of comfort for the home fans after a one-sided opening was that Liverpool had conceded at least two goals in each of their last four PL away matches, and that vulnerability was nearly seized on after Joe Gomez was forced off injured when Mohammed Kudus let fly from range, only denied a spectacular goal by the base of the post.
In typically ruthless fashion, Arne Slot’s men went up the other end and doubled their lead. Salah was the architect, brilliantly turning past Konstantinos Mavropanos before nutmegging Max Kilman with a pass to Cody Gakpo, who applied the finishing touch to score for a second consecutive game.
Salah rounded off an emphatic first-half performance with a goal of his own in the 44th minute, beating Areola at his near post to take his tally to 20 for the season across all competitions.
That marked the eighth time Salah has scored and assisted in the same PL match this term – an all-time competition record – and was an ominous sign to West Ham given that Liverpool had netted at least two goals after HT in six of their prior eight league outings.
The Egyptian found himself through on goal again within two minutes of the restart, but Areola stood firm to deny the Reds’ talisman another brace.
The West Ham goalkeeper had no answer to Trent Alexander-Arnold’s effort soon after though, with the full-back’s long-range strike taking a wicked deflection off Kilman on its way in.
Slot even had the luxury of withdrawing the likes of Ryan Gravenberch and Gakpo in preparation for their clash against Manchester United in their next fixture.
Their replacements were of considerable quality though, with Diogo Jota initially denied Liverpool’s fifth by another smart stop from Areola, only to beat the Frenchman in the 84th minute and add extra gloss to another statement performance from the PL’s champions-elect.
A 15th win from the last 19 H2Hs serves as the perfect warm-up for their blockbuster showdown with United next week, while West Ham will look to quickly move on after suffering just a second defeat from their last seven home matches.