Watford have recorded some great victories at Vicarage Road over the years. The win secured on Sunday, December 20, 2015 can now be added to the list after the Hornets produced a stunning performance to topple Liverpool 3-0 to move within a point of the Champions League.

After three successive wins, conventional wisdom had it that this game was meant to be the start of a Premier League reality check for the Hornets as they embarked on a sequence of festive fixtures that will also take in Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City. Conventional wisdom, what conventional wisdom?

Quique Sanchez Flores’ men never looked back from the moment they took an early lead and proceeded to produce a display that was of the highest quality in every department to leave their supposedly more illustrious opponents shell-shocked.

Watford were handed the perfect start after two minutes when Adam Bodgan dropped a Ben Watson corner and Nathan Ake pounced to make it 1-0.

That would have raised eyebrows in the wider football world but by the 16th minute the shockwaves had intensified as Troy Deeney played in Odion Ighalo, who demonstrated superb strength to out-muscle Martin Skrtel before doubling his side’s lead.

A reaction from Liverpool would have been expected after that. They tried to mount one but were simply second best in every department for the remainder of the first half as the hosts went into the break in command and with a degree of relative comfort.

The visitors had more of the play after the break but they were unable to fashion too many opportunities as the Hornets remained resolute en route to securing yet another top-flight clean sheet.

And the counter-attack always looked like it would reap rewards for Flores’ side and so it proved in the closing stages when Ighalo nodded home his second from close range after being set up by Valon Behrami.

Flores was able to name an unchanged side from the team that made it three successive wins at Sunderland last weekend after Almen Abdi recovered from illness.

Jurgen Klopp was always going to have to make two changes from the starting XI that drew 2-2 at home to West Bromwich Albion last time out due to injuries to Dejan Lovren and James Milner but ultimately he made four.

Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet also missed out due to a tight hamstring so Bogdan started in between the uprights, while Christian Benteke was dropped to the bench. The three outfield players to come in were the fit-again Mamadou Sakho, Lucas and Roberto Firmino.

Watford started positively, winning their first corner inside two minutes after Ake had used his pace to almost get round the back of Nathaniel Clyne. And from that set piece, the hosts got off to a dream start courtesy of a bad Bogdan blunder.

Ben Watson took the corner from the left, Troy Deeney went up to challenge Bogdan but didn’t make contact as the keeper caught the ball but then dropped it and as he gathered it again Ake managed to knock it from his grasp and put it into the net to make it 1-0 with his first goal for the Hornets.

The visitors had a case for claiming a free-kick should have been awarded but Mark Clattenburg allowed the goal to stand, much to the delight of a jubilant Vicarage Road.

The home side almost created another opening when Deeney dispossessed a nervous-looking Sakho but his attempted pass from right to left across the face of the 18-yard box was cut out by a stretching Martin Skrtel.

The Reds won two corners as they looked to get back on terms as early as possible and Heurelho Gomes had to drop to his left to hold onto Phillippe Countinho’s attempted right-footed curler.

The Hornets withstood that spell of pressure though, and in the 15th minute took the game by the scruff of the neck thanks to the latest spell of superb inter-play from their terrific front pairing.

As Lucas tried to lift the ball upfield, Deeney had come short and intercepted to lob it into the path of the run of Ighalo. Skrtel would have been favourite to win that contest but Watford’s top scorer simply showed greater strength and desire to win the ball and knock out to his right before hitting a low finish across and beyond Bogdan to make it 2-0 with his 11th goal of the campaign.

Alberto Moreno was perhaps fortunate to escape a yellow card for an over-zealous challenge on Allan Nyom in which the Liverpool left-back came off worse. But their opponents were playing the better football, looking comfortable and in command and in the 33rd minute came very close to making it 3-0.

Deeney started the business end of a move when he chested a delivery from the right into the path of Jose Manuel Jurado. Bogdan beat him to the ball but his punch hit the back of a teammate and Ighalo was unable to get sufficient contact to force it over the line before Skrtel was able to clear.

The home side kept play alive though, and the ball was played back in from the right to Jurado, who hit a right-footed snap shot which Bogdan managed to push around his near post.

The visitors suffered a further blow three minutes before the interval when Skrtel, who had been struggling with an injury he received earlier in the half, was forced off and replaced by Divock Origi as Lucas dropped back into defence.

Klopp’s men were preparing to defend a corner at that stage and Watson’s in-swinging delivery from the left posed more problems, bouncing in the six-yard box at the near post before a stretching Bogdan managed to scramble it away.

That was the Hornets’ last opening of the half at the end of which they were rightly given a standing ovation after a performance better in every department than their opponents.

Liverpool, as would be expected, started the second period on the front foot and Miguel Britos had to make a good block to thwart an Adam Lallana inside the opening minute. Moreno then fired into the side netting when he should have crossed before Origi held off Britos but Gomes was equal to his shot.

The Hornets though, continued to stand firm at the back with the counter-attack increasingly looking a potential avenue to exploit with Deeney and Ighalo’s pressing and movement stretching the visitors’ depleted rearguard on more than one occasion.

But Flores’ men did come very close to netting a third on the hour-mark when Sakho was latest defender to be left looking foolish by the Ighalo scoop but Jurado was not quite alive to the opportunity when the ball was played to him in the six-yard box.

But it was the Spaniard, who was having a very effective game, who was to set up his side’s next opportunity three minutes later when he put Ighalo clean through with an incisive pass. The striker looked odds-on to make it 3-0 but Bogdan read his intentions and saved well.

Gomes had not been particularly extended but he was forced into a good save in the 66th minute, tipping over Jordan Henderson’s dipping half-volley after the England midfielder had got the better of Ake.

The Brazilian also had to get down to push away a drive from Emre Can following a rare poor clearance from Britos before Klopp played his final hand in the 74th minute, bringing on Benteke and Jordan Ibe for Lallana and Firmino. Flores also chose to make a change shortly after as Anya came on for Jurado.

Britos picked up the game’s first yellow card for hauling back Benteke, who nodded wide from the resultant free-kick.

Behrami then made his return to action as a 79th-minute replacement for Abdi and six minutes later came the icing on a wonderful Hornets cake.

The home side sprung the counter as Ighalo fed Deeney and he played the ball out to Behrami, who had sprinted up in support and into space on the right side of the penalty area. The Swiss substitute didn’t bother taking a touch but played in a first-time cross to an unmarked Ighalo, who calmly planted a header past Bogdan to make it 12 for the season and 3-0.

The scorer was afforded his own personal standing ovation as he was replaced by Adlene Guedioura for the closing stages as Watford wrapped up another win that deserves to take its place up with the greatest in the club’s history.

Watford: Gomes; Nyom, Cathcart, Britos, Ake; Capoue, Watson; Abdi (Behrami 79), Deeney, Jurado (Anya 76); Ighalo (Guedioura 88). Not used: Arlauskis, Oulare, olebas, Diamanti.

Liverpool: Bogdan; Clyne, Skrtel (Origi 42), Sakho, Moreno; Lucas, Henderson, Can; Lallana (Benteke 74), Firmino (Ibe 74), Countinho. Not used: Fulton, Toure, Randall, Allen.

Bookings: Britos for a foul on Benteke (78).

Referee: Mark Clattenburg.