Heskey and Owen demolish Ipswich

Steven Gerrard's bending pass was perfection and Heskey's left-foot finish sublime. It came in between Abel Xavier's opener and Sami Hyypia's third for Liverpool but it was a move of grace and beauty.

Gerrard then centred for Owen to record his 22nd of the season and Heskey then skipped the ball into his path to set up his 23rd.

It was hard evidence that the two have re-established the link which makes them such a deadly combination for club and country.

Xavier, fresh from scoring his maiden goal in British football - albeit off the foot of Chris Makin - reflected on the difference between facing up to them and the comfort of playing behind them.

'They are tremendous,' said the Portugal defender. 'Sometimes for a defender, when strikers pass to each other, it is made much more difficult if the forwards don't have to talk to each other. Even clever players have to shout directions but these two don't even think about their move-ment - it is natural to them.

'I have played against them and saw how good they were but now I am training with them I can see even more things than before and I believe that they are tremendous and they have many years to become even better.'

There was more to come from Heskey when he capped one of the best all-round displays of his career with a crisp drive to the bottom corner of Andy Marshall's net on the stroke of full time.

Having got used to winning ways during Ipswich's run of seven victories in eight games, it all came as something of a shock to the goalkeeper, whose lack of blame for any of the goals was reflected in his winning the sponsor's man of the match award.

Marshall said: 'It's the biggest pasting of my life. Watching Owen and Heskey run at me was one of the most awesome sights I have seen. People talk about Heskey not scoring enough but he showed his quality today.

'I will be cheering them on Wednesday against the Dutch but I can't say I felt the same way in this match.'

There would be no point in George Burley poring over the details of this game looking for where it all went wrong for his side. Sometimes you come up against teams who are simply irresistible and on Saturday Burley would have stood a better chance of winning the National Lottery than of beating Liverpool.

A fourth consecutive Premiership win and 11 goals scored on the road at Manchester United, Leeds and Ipswich is a robust statement of intent. Liverpool have had their bad patch and they are now gearing up for an all- out assault on the championship.

And for Owen and Heskey? A repeat performance on Wednesday will simply confirm their status as the nation's pop idols - without the singing.