First-half goals by Dirk Kuyt, Peter Crouch and Luis Garcia were a breathtaking way to bounce back from last week's meek surrender at Old Trafford. They were also a convincing, some would say angry, answer to anonymous claims by a man from within that Benitez made bad signings and didn't know his best line-up. If there is any truth in the latter, this will have helped him to clarify his thinking.
The Liverpool fans made no secret of their allegiances, chanting their manager's name at the start, and thereafter finding nothing to challenge that loyalty.
Villa, hitherto the Premiership's only unbeaten side, had their record reduced to rubble by half-time, and despite hitting back with commendable spirit after the interval, must be dreading the day when a manager with unanimous backing stands in their way.
Benitez, of course, will have to kick on from here if complaints about his rotation policy are to be silenced. This was the 99th consecutive match in which he had changed his line-up, and the ton will be up on Tuesday, when Bordeaux come calling. Mohamed Sissoko took a knock here, as did Steven Gerrard.
“Some players need more than two or three days to be fit,” said the manager. “If you have a player tired, and another with the same quality, why take the risk?” In the circumstances, Benitez could have done with a less awkward opponent than Martin O'Neill, who had never been beaten at Anfield in five previous visits as a manager, but he needn't have worried.
The absence again of Gavin McCann persuaded O'Neill to give Isaiah Osbourne his first Premiership start, and it was all the 18-year-old could do to sneak a touch in the centre of the pitch.
Liverpool won almost all of the ball in that area, worked it neatly out to the flanks, and patiently waited for their chances to come.
That Kuyt should score the opener was appropriate. The Dutchman's father, who recently underwent a cancer operation, was watching his son for the first time at Anfield, and this will have done his recovery no harm. When Jamie Carragher's long diagonal was nodded down by Peter Crouch, the blond striker chested it down and cut a low shot into the bottom corner.
O'Neill later said his team had been overawed by Liverpool's assault, and in turn contributed to the home side's dominance. They gave the ball away cheaply, and were careless in defence.
When Olof Mellberg failed to cut out Steve Finnan's harmless cross seven minutes before the break, Crouch scored against his former club by bundling a low shot just inside the post.
The concession of a third goal before half-time well and truly ended O'Neill's honeymoon period. Although playing wide on the right, Gerrard started it with a purposeful surge through the middle, after which Kuyt and Crouch set up Garcia in as slick a demonstration of passing as you could wish for. The Spaniard, idling in from the left, had all the time he needed to slip a low shot under the goalkeeper.
O'Neill had already raised a few eyebrows by dropping Steven Davis to the bench and giving Wilfred Bouma his first start of the season, but his team's first-half performance prompted him to go even further. Two of the players who served him well at Celtic, Chris Sutton and Didier Agathe, were introduced for the second half in place of Milan Baros and Juan Pablo Angel. The latter two had done next to nothing, but they weren't exactly regular recipients of the ball.
Sutton, though, was quick to justify the manager's decision. Gabriel Agbonlahor, advanced to a striking role after the interval, set up a clever exchange with the veteran forward before wrong-footing the goalkeeper from close range.
For Villa, it was a source of encouragement even they could not have been expecting, and when Jose Reina had to parry a Sutton header, O'Neill was left punching the air in frustration.
Liverpool, though, were still stretching their opponents at every opportunity, especially in one bemusing move, when Crouch's shot struck a body on the line, and Gerrard's the post.
Garcia, too, almost scored when he took out the full-back and dragged the ball wide in one seamless movement, but the difference in the second half was a more threatening dimension to Villa's counterattacks. And to think that Villa, whose expectations have rocketed so high since O'Neill's relatively recent arrival, had been accused of drawing too many matches. “Well, we've changed that, anyway,” their manager said.