'Demolition' ranked in Gerrard greatest
With their jaws beginning to ascend having been dropped by Liverpool's astonishing display in overpowering Arsenal 5-1, Kopites drifted away from the scene discussing where the performance ranked in a season rapidly developing into one to remember.
During the 90 minutes that had just concluded, their Red heroes had totally dismantled a side who travelled north to Anfield for the early Saturday kick-off sitting at the very summit of the Barclays Premier League.
Positional dominance was rendered irrelevant within 60 seconds, however, as Martin Skrtel prodded into the back of the net from close range courtesy of an inch-perfect free-kick delivery by captain Steven Gerrard.
In the 19 unforgettable minutes that followed, the Slovakian and the Englishman combined successfully from another set-piece, Luis Suarez almost broke the woodwork with a volley from 25 yards, Raheem Sterling racked up a third and Daniel Sturridge joined the scorers to complete a quartet.
Sterling would register once more, seven minutes into the second period, with a Mikel Arteta penalty conversion offering mere consolation for the Gunners as the hosts consolidated their berth in the Premier League chasing pack.
Providing his personal reflection on the encounter, Gerrard did not limit his criteria simply to the current campaign, but ranked what occurred two days ago as the equal of anything the No.8 has experienced in more than a decade-and-a-half in the first team.
The skipper commented: "That is right up there. We have absolutely demolished a top team there from start to finish. I am trying to think back of a performance, especially in the first half, that I can remember in the last 15 years.
"Maybe one or two in the Champions League got close, but that was as explosive as it gets. That's definitely in the top three performances I have been involved in.
"You are talking about a side that is top of the league with world-class players, ones who are worth £42million; Jack Wilshere, one of the country's big hopes who we are looking to perform at a World Cup, and Santi Cazorla."
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To a man, Brendan Rodgers' charges completed the tasks set for them with aplomb, pressuring the visitors constantly, pinning the opposition into their own half, retrieving possession in all areas and attacking with pace and precision.
For Gerrard, the genesis of the result lay in the reverse fixture - when the Reds were overturned 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium - and revenge was secured long before the referee blew the full-time whistle.
The midfielder continued: "If you stand off Arsenal and give them too much respect, they will pass you to death. They beat us 2-0 last year when we showed them too much respect.
"Brendan is the type of manager that won't just accept 4-0. He believes in 'death by football' and at half-time he wanted us to go out and kill them again in the second half.
"We never did that but that was impossible because of the amount of effort, tempo and work-rate we put in for 45 minutes. It is impossible to do it for 90 minutes. The game was dead and buried at half-time."
Saturday's sensational victory was the second successive home fixture in which the Reds have summarily dismissed a rival, with Everton on the receiving end in a 4-0 Merseyside derby thrashing 11 days previously.
Subsequently, though, a 1-1 stalemate with West Bromwich Albion briefly dented the progress of Rodgers' team; Gerrard, therefore, issued a warning ahead of Wednesday's journey to bottom-of-the-table Fulham.
"I think the thing after a performance like that is: can we motivate ourselves to get close to producing something similar against Fulham?" the 33-year-old added.
"If we do, we will do the same to Fulham. But that is the dangerous thing. We performed fantastically against Everton and then slipped up against West Brom having taken the lead. We should have seen that game out.
"You can set markers and you can have one-off games but it means nothing if you don't continue to play well and get something from it at the end of the season.
"We aren't going to look back at the end of the season and think 'How good were we against Arsenal?' if we never got the top four. We can enjoy this but we have got to move on quickly and try to get three points against Fulham."