THE fog returned with a vengeance to Anfield last night.
There was the misty eyed despair of the Liverpudlians, who could only wince and weep at the gloomy spectacle before them.
And then there was the permanent haze which continues to obscure the area around those vacant, apparently booked seats in the Directors' Box.
If the prospective new owners were watching Liverpool's brutal annihilation, they now know the scale of the excavation required into their much-heralded deep pockets.
Arsenal's outstanding victory wasn't built merely on Liverpool's shoddy defending, largely non-existent goalkeeping and disturbingly inefficient all-round performance - although naturally that helps when you're in the business of humiliating a club on its own patch.
In reality, this was a massacre ten years in the making. Arsene Wenger dared to consider it his most satisfying moment in management, because he's seeing a forward thinking strategy come to fruition.
When a visionary coach is paired with a board which has the foresight and financial strength to ensure the manager gets the players he asks for, you're left with a squad as formidable as this.
Young, athletic, fast, technically gifted and hungry for success. Everything Liverpool, with half a dozen notable exceptions, are not.
Watch, admire and learn.
Take away Manuel Almunia, and the average age of the side which became the first to score six away goals at Anfield since 1930 was just 19.
That's not just a frightening thought for Liverpool supporters who've been waiting for their club to cough up a couple of million for Lucas Neill and a hundred grand for a Scottish teenager, it's a demoralising one.
Wenger's and Rafa Benitez's scouts tour the world together, compiling dossiers on the same players, but it's Arsenal who complete the deals, while the Liverpool boss impatiently lives in fear of another target escaping.
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