The performance this talented group of players have been threatening, the one they had been promising would come, finally, finally materialised this afternoon as Bristol City were blown away at Vicarage Road.

Playing with vibrancy, energy and tempo, the Hornets treated those watching on Hive Live to a feast of attacking football, the best here since they thrashed Liverpool nearly a year ago. The Golden Boys had only scored one goal from open play in the previous 450 minutes and yet riotously helped themselves to four in 37 wonderful and much-needed minutes. It could conceivably have been six or seven at the break.

It ended up being six in what was the highest scoring win since the madcap Blackpool one in 2015. The clean sheet was also the 14th of the season and the Hornets look some team at this level if they can attack like this and with the same level of consistency as they are keeping clean sheets. Everybody should enjoy this win and celebrate it, particularly during such a joyless period, but the task now is to back this up at Preston on Tuesday night and again here against Derby. The Championship demands that of you. The standard has now been set.

The win was a triumph for Xisco Muñoz, who opted for a change in personnel and tactics, especially as he was without top-scorer and club captain Troy Deeney, who was only fit enough to be among the substitutes. The ebullient Head Coach, who has only been in the job five minutes, had been working on a change in system for a couple of weeks and put it into practise here. It worked an absolute treat.

Pitched either side of lone striker João Pedro, Ken Sema and Ismaïla Sarr played as advanced as they have done all season and wreacked havoc. The electric Sarr created the first for Sema, Sarr tucked in the second, watched Will Hughes slam in a deflected third and then the wingers combined beautifully for Sema to convert a third. It was dreamy stuff and reminiscent of the days when Nigel Callaghan and John Barnes used to tear up the flanks with such devastating effect in the 80s. As the great Graham Taylor said, “football is a simple game.”

It was a ruthless display of attacking football, with the four first-half goals coming from only three shots on target. In truth, it could have been more as the sprightly João Pedro hit the underside of the bar, had another blocked superbly by Taylor Moore and Sarr dragged a very presentable chance wide. Bristol didn't know what had hit them, finding themselves on the receiving end of what a few teams had feared, particularly coming here.

You got the feeling the Hornets were at it from the way Tom Cleverley and Nathaniel Chalobah charged around in the opening minutes. Here was the fast start that everybody had craved and the players had so badly wanted to deliver.

Chalobah showed his best form at the start of the 2017/18 season in a three-man midfield and he was clearly at home again in this midfield triumvirate. He found a lovely spot on the right of the three and after just 270 seconds, threaded a ball through for Sarr. The Senegal flier was off, leaving Ryley Towler for dead and standing up a cross that hit the bar, bounced out and fell nicely for Sema to nudge in. It was only the team's 12th first-half goal of the season.

They got a second when some lovely interplay between Hughes and Sema down the inside left resulted in Cleverley, in similar fashion to what he did against Hudderfield, chased down an underhit backpass and teed up Sarr to slot home. The support play, the willingness to get into the box, was terrific and a feature of the first-half display.

The quesiton now was: would the team sit off like they did against Rotherham here with a two-goal lead or go for the jugular? They welcomingly did the latter.

Hughes crashed in a deflected third for what would be his first goal since the one at Newcastle in August 2019, although his muted celebration suggested he either felt he shouldn't claim it or he wanted more.

The team certainly were hungry and got a fourth through Sema ten minutes before the break and one from Sarr ten minutes after. From then on, it was a question of how many the home side might get and damage limitation for the shell-shocked Robins. It ended up being one more, very late on through Philip Zinckernagel after yet another assist from the magnificent Sarr. This was the Sarr we saw this time last year.

Muñoz otherwise used the last third of the match to use the full depth of his squad and every one of the five substitutes available, including Dan Gosling and Achraf Lazaar, who made their debuts. It was a wise move by the Head Coach, taken with a run of three games in six days very much in mind. It all went exactly according to plan and the squad can now head to Deepdale in the best possible shape and in the best possible form. The hope is this performance and result provides the sort of springboard the one at Fulham did in 2014.