The key was youth and exuberance, aided and abetted by some woefully slow, surprisingly negligent Arsenal defending. The first two goals, following a free kick and a corner kick, were both scored by Martin Skrtel, the big, powerful Slovak who is built for defending. The next two, still within the opening 20 minutes, were finished off by fleet-footed English players, Raheem Sterling and Daniel Sturridge. And shortly after halftime, young Sterling outran the Arsenal central defense yet again to make it five goals.

Arsenal was simply blown away. The attacks abated before the storm did, but that was more because Liverpool seemed satisfied with its own supremacy. Many on this Liverpool team — along with many of the supporters in the stadium — were not even born the last time the red tide was in such flow.

Sterling is just 19, and Liverpool’s last English championship was in 1990.

Philippe Coutinho, the architect of so many of Liverpool’s moves, is a 21-year-old from Rio de Janeiro whose slight built is outweighed by his sleight-of-foot passes.

Yet, even in the English game, which is still more physical than most around the world, this young Brazilian stands out. He is barely 5-foot-7, but what does physical stature matter when the brain, the eye and the feet can turn midfield into a goal-scoring opportunity at a single stroke? Coutinho’s pass for the Sturridge goal was struck — no, caressed — from the halfway line. It divided Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, the big German and the swift Frenchman who have been quite effective this season in Arsenal’s defense.

And Sturridge, a Chelsea reject, was so fleet of foot, and so sure of his finish with the left foot, that the Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny might as well have stayed in London and not made the journey north for this encounter.