Brendan Rodgers had a word of praise for each of the players he sent out to thrash the Barclays Premier League leaders Arsenal 5-1 on Saturday afternoon.

Even supporters who have seen it all on the famous Anfield terraces down the years were flabbergasted by an opening 20 minutes which yielded four Liverpool goals.

Martin Skrtel latched onto two pin-point Steven Gerrard crosses within the first 10 minutes to send Kopites into ecstasy, but it was about to get a whole lot better.

Raheem Sterling turned home Luis Suarez's low delivery and Daniel Sturridge ran onto a sublime pass from Philippe Coutinho to make it 4-0 before Sterling struck a second.

From back to front, it was an inspirational display from the Reds, surely their finest of the season so far, and afterwards, Rodgers shared the plaudits around.

He began with the Brazilian, Coutinho, who was at his calculating best. "Young Philippe has always had that appetite for the ball and he's a wonderful technician," said Rodgers.

"He's added to his game the ability to press the ball, intercept, block and his hunger to do that side of the game is now key for us.

"Jordan Henderson is a player who is improving all the time. Those three in the midfield, with Steven controlling from behind and getting on the ball, playmaking from that role, sets us up perfectly.

"Raheem Sterling was incredible. He's just turned 19 years of age. I don't think there's a better winger in England at this moment in time. He's absolutely phenomenal. Today he was outstanding. But that was the case right across the board.

"Aly Cissokho defended well at left-back. He was hard to beat. Our two centre-halves, Kolo Toure and Martin Skrtel, were great. Skrtel was exceptional. Young Jon Flanagan was brilliant, on the front foot, aggressive and passing it well.

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"Daniel Sturridge playing in that penetration role was superb. Luis Suarez was selfless today. We changed it about and switched the front three around and put Daniel through the middle to penetrate with speed.

"Raheem went onto the left side to try and control Bacary Sagna, to defend against him and to penetrate along the inside of Per Mertesacker. Luis had to do that selfless job on the right. So you can see that we're a team and one that is getting better."

It was the Reds' first victory over Arsenal at Anfield in the league since Peter Crouch put Arsene Wenger's side to the sword with a well-taken treble.

The last time Liverpool beat the Gunners by such a margin as they did on Saturday, Gerrard set the ball rolling on a 4-0 rout for Gerard Houllier's side in front of the Kop in 2000.

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"These games are normally very tight games," reflected Rodgers. "I felt that we could have gone on and scored more, but I was really pleased with how we managed the game.

"The crowd are so excited here now because of the goals we can get. In the first half, with us 4-0 up against Arsenal, they really wanted us to go for the throat, which we did.

"But it's also important that we can manage the game as well and that was a real pleasing aspect of today, that management and the control of the game at times, with and without the ball. We know that we can perform to that level, with Everton and Tottenham away."