England's greatest victory of modern times at the scene of the most harrowing defeat. It's just so good it simply has to be fattening.

For the last four years mere mention of the word 'Adelaide' was enough to cause grown Englishmen to rock to and fro while weeping softly and mumbling about "making the bad men stop". That might admittedly only have been this particular Englishman, but anyway.

So painful were the memories, so raw still the wounds that I could not imagine any way for one mere victory to provide what psychobabblers call closure.

But this was no mere victory.

This was as complete a performance as England have produced in my lifetime. Let us not sully out with talk of the appalling but hilarious awfulness of the Australians. Let us instead celebrate an England team whose top order is in such outrageous form that their most stylish batsman is required only to slap a few quick boundaries to set up a declaration, whose bowlers can run through an opposition batting line-up even when their numbers are reduced to three, whose fielding is so impressive that even the slightest fumble causes genuine surprise while the most impressive of catches appears run-of-the-mill and who beat Australia in Australia in a meaningful Ashes Test match by an innings. And a half. And 71 runs.

They even used the DRS system Quite Well. This truly was a perfect victory.

Such is England's current dominance (stretching back to halfway through the Brisbane Test) that the loss of Stuart Broad to injury is, while upsetting, hardly likely to derail the Ashes Express.

England, in an astonishing display of foresight and planning surely unequalled in their cricketing history, looked at a schedule of six Tests in seven weeks and thought "Hmm, might need some decent back-up bowlers here, and it might be worth giving the chaps a game or two to prepare".

Chris Tremlett is the obvious choice - especially for Perth even if it isn't the lightning WACA deck of old - but Ajmal Shahzad's reverse swing and endearing wide-eyed mentalism are not without their merits either.

Unless they go all negative - and this is England so it can't entirely be ruled out - and pick Tim Bresnan to stiffen a shaky-look batting line-up that has only managed 1137 for six in its last two efforts then all is well.

But above all this was a victory so complete, so rampant, so entirely one-sided from the moment Jonathan Trott threw down the stumps in the very first over that I can now once again hear the word Adelaide without breaking out in a cold sweat.

And that, surely, is the most important thing.