Incredibly only three points separated the Premiership newcomers and Rafa Benitez's revamped side before kick-off.
An early tussle in Norwich's box resulted in a shot from Milan Baros, but the ball which should have been easily hoovered up by Rob Green, was instead fumbled and bounced high into the path of Djibril Cisse.
Maybe it is because he has ditched his trademark blonde haircut, but the striker miscued an easy header two feet over the bar.
But the Canaries showed they will be no pushovers this season and if they are let out of their cage they are capable of upsetting teams.
Starting with solid, suffocating defence, led by the staunch Adam Drury, they proved they can ware teams down and create chances.
With captain Steven Gerrard sidelined for two months with a broken metatarsal bone, Liverpool seemed to be missing their vital midfield links early in the game.
But new boy Xabi Alonso stepped into the void and provided some pinpoint passes to John Arne Riise and Cisse, only for Norwich's defence to snuff them out.
The Merseysiders continued to mount their pressure and eventually discovered the chinks in their visitors armour and scored twice in quick succession.
It was Euro golden boot winner Baros who broke the deadlock with a beautifully crafted goal in the 22nd minute. He picked up the ball ten yards from the edge of the box and dribbling past two green and yellow shirts he suddenly turned to release a venomous shot which the Canaries keeper had no chance of stopping.
Just as Norwich were recovering from Baros' stunner the Reds threw a Spaniard in the works.
Cisse collected the ball from Alonso on the right wing and held it up against two defenders before deftly sidefooting it to Luis Garcia and dribbling past Gary Holt into the box, he fired a left-footed effort which with the help of a lucky deflection off the back of Craig Fleming found the net on 27 minutes.
The double sucker punch totally winded the visitors.
Gone was the calm and collected manner with which they'd started the game and instead they were content to hack Liverpool.
Baros was left on his knees looking at the referee in bewilderment after one particular late challenge by Simon Charlton. The Norwich defender decided the only way to stop the Czech was to jump on him and play piggy-back.
But a blood-thirsty Liverpool side refused to release their stranglehold and Cisse added the nail in the coffin on 64 minutes. Another harsh challenge on Baros left Liverpool with a free-kick just outside the area.
The poker-faced Frenchman stepped up and drove home a thunderous right-footed strike which left Green flailing on the floor.
Cisse celebrated with an acrobatic double somersault worthy of an Olympic gymnast and fully exorcised any demons that followed Liverpool down the M62 from Old Trafford.
Despite the promising start, Norwich showed they need to learn the merits of discipline under pressure if they want to play with the big boys.