Mohamed Salah was again Liverpool's star performer as he opened the scoring with his 30th goal of the season before setting up Dominik Szoboszlai to double the lead before half-time.
Just days after exiting the Champions League to Real Madrid, this was another sobering defeat for the dethroned English champions, who are now 20 points adrift of the leaders.
So often during Pep Guardiola's glorious reign, Liverpool have come up just short in English football's great rivalry of recent years. However, their time to match Manchester United's record of 20 English top-flight titles now appears just months away in Arne Slot's first season in charge.
Arsenal's shock 1-0 home defeat to West Ham on Saturday had eased the pressure on Liverpool, which had built after dropping points in two of their last three games at Everton and Aston Villa.